Disparities in treatment and survival between African American and White women with vaginal cancer

ObjectiveThe study aims to compare the difference in treatment and survival between White (W) and African American (AA) patients with vaginal cancer (VC).MethodsPatients with a diagnosis of invasive vaginal cancer were identified from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program from 1988 to 2007 and were divided into White (W) and African American (AA) subgroups. Student's t test, Kaplan–Meier survival methods, and Cox regression proportional hazards were performed.ResultsA total of 2675 patients met the inclusion criteria, with histologic distribution of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC; 2190, 82%) and adenocarcinoma (AC; 485, 18%); 2294 (85.8%) were W, and 381 (14.2%) were AA. Median age was 69 for W and 65 for AA (p < 0.001). SCC and AC were equally distributed between W and AA. Advanced stage disease (FIGO III and IV) was more prominent in AA compared with W (30.4% vs. 23.1%, p = 0.019). Radiation therapy was utilized equally in both racial groups; however, surgical treatment alone or combined with radiation therapy was more frequent in W compared with AA (27.7% vs. 17.5%, p < 0.001).The 5-year survival was 45% in W and 38.6% in AA (p = 0.008). In multivariate analysis, AA had significantly poorer survival compared with Whites when controlling for age, histology, stage, grade and treatment modality (HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1–1.4, p = 0.007).ConclusionsAfrican American women with vaginal cancer were more likely to present, at a younger age, advanced stage and less likely to receive surgical treatment. Our data suggests that AA race is an independent predictor of poor survival in vaginal cancer.

Research highlights
► African American women with vaginal cancer have significantly poorer survival compared with White women.
► African American women with early stage vaginal cancer who received surgical treatment have comparable survival with White women.
► Lymphadenectomy and nodal metastasis were independent predictors of survival in vaginal cancer patients.