Ethnic disparities in cervical cancer survival among Texas women

Objective: The aim of this work was to determine whether minority women are more likely to die of cervical cancer. A population-based cohort study was performed using Texas Cancer Registry (TCR) data from 1998 to 2002. Methods: A total of 5,166 women with cervical cancer were identified during 1998-2002 through the TCR. Measures of socioeconomic status (SES) and urbanization were created using census block group-level data. Multilevel logistic regression was used to calculate the odds of dying from cervical cancer by race, and Cox proportional hazards modeling was used for cervical cancer-specific survival analysis. Results: After adjusting for age, SES, urbanization, stage, cell type, and treatment, Hispanic women were significantly less likely than non-Hispanic White women to die from cervical cancer (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]=0.69; 95% CI [confidence interval]=0.59-0.80), whereas Black women were more likely to die (aHR=1.26; 95% CI=1.06-1.50). Black and Hispanic women were more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage than White women. Black women were significantly less likely to receive surgery among those diagnosed with localized disease (p=0.001) relative to both White and Hispanic women. Conclusions: Relative to non-Hispanic White women, Black women were more likely to die of cervical cancer while Hispanic women were less likely to die; these survival differences were not explained by SES, urbanization, age, cell type, stage at diagnosis, or treatment.