Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170615
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a study published in the NCI Journal, experts adjusted statistical data to compare cancer rates by race with education, income and population density. What they found, said statistician John Horm, is that race played less of a role in overall cancer risk than did the other factors.
Earlier studies, comparing the races only, showed that blacks had a 6 to 10 percent greater overall cancer risk than whites, and up to a 22 percent greater risk for specific types of malignant disease, such as lung cancer.
The new study used data from three cities, San Francisco, Detroit and Atlanta, and correlated cancer incidence with data from the 1980 census. It measured for overall cancer risk and for seven specific types of cancer.
After adjusting the cancer incidence data for socio-economic status, the study found that the rates for whites went up, both for overall cancer risk and for three of the specific types of the disease - rectum, lung and female breast. Meanwhile, the rates went down for blacks, except for cervical, stomach and prostate cancers.
When correlating the findings for education levels, the study found that the highest overall cancer rates were among whites with less than a high school education living in an area of medium population density. There, the rate for whites was 402.9 per 100,000, compared to a black rate of 401.1.
Using income for the correlation, the study found that the highest overall cancer rates were among whites earning less than $15,000 a year and living in high density population areas, which Horm said would typically mean inner-city poverty sites. For this group, the whites had a cancer rate of 434.8 per 100,000 and the black rate was 385.5.
The most dramatic change in the comparative cancer burdens came in lung cancer. Based on race alone, black lung cancer incidence rates were 70.8 per 100,000 compared to 58.6 for whites. However, when adjusted for the other factors, the white incidence rates were higher by just one to two points.
"The lung cancer rates are so close, there is not a really meaningful difference [between the races]," said Horm. "But before the adjustment, the blacks were quite a bit higher than whites."
Horm said national cancer rates could possibly be lowered with better health care provided to poorer neighborhoods.
by CNB