Racial disparities in treatment and survival of hepatocellular carcinoma in native Americans and Hispanics

- Hispanics and native Americans with hepatocellular carcinoma have more advanced cirrhosis than whites.
- Hispanics and native Americans are less likely to receive transarterial chemoembolization/radiofrequency ablation than whites.
- Native Americans had the best survival, whereas Hispanics had the worst.

BackgroundWe investigated if there were any differences in disease presentation and survival between the 3 major ethnicities in New Mexico; non-Hispanic whites (NHW), native Americans (NA), and Hispanics (H).MethodsA retrospective analysis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated at our institution between 2000 and 2014 was performed. Overall survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models.ResultsWe identified 326 patients; 106 (32.5%) NHW, 183 (56.1%) H, and 37 (11.4%) NA. No difference in disease stage, resectability, rate of offering surgery, or chemotherapy was found. Advanced cirrhosis was more common in H and NA than NHW (P = .01). NA had a higher incidence of nonviral hepatocellular carcinoma (P = .0009). NHW were more likely to receive transarterial chemoembolization/radiofrequency than NA or H (P = .04). Median survivals for NA, NHW, H were 24, 14, and 11 months, respectively, (P = .01).ConclusionsAlthough there was no difference in disease stage or resectability, NA and H had more advanced cirrhosis and were less likely to undergo transarterial chemoembolization and/or radiofrequency than NHW. NA had the best survival, whereas H had the worst survival.