Study Reveals Overall Survival Disparities Among Race and Stage

(December 8, 2017) The results of the CONCORD-2 study, recently published in Cancer, show a large difference in ovarian cancer survival between black women and white women, and also between stages at diagnosis. The data collected from the study, the largest of its kind, looked at 172,849 cases of ovarian cancer, over the course of 8 years, in 37 states.

Although the five year survival rate improved between after 2003, black women still had lower survival rates than white women. Black women were seen to have survival rates of 29.6% between 2001 and 2003 and 31.1% between 2004 and 2009, whereas the net survival rates were 39.6% between 2001 and 2003 and 41% between 2004 and 2009. The survival rates for early, or more localized, stages were the highest at 86.4% while the later, or more distant, stages were the lowest at 27.4%.

The study concludes by saying that improvement needs to be twofold: patients need to receive the same, guideline based treatment across the board and research focusing on screening methods, in order to detect ovarian cancer at its earliest stages, would help to increase survival rates.