African-Americans are as likely as white people to survive colon cancer if they have equal access to chemotherapy.

It's been noted that African-Americans are less likely to survive colon cancer than their white counterparts. Is this due to genetic differences, or does treatment have an effect?

To settle this question, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute compared outcomes in a group of 344 African-Americans and 3,036 white people with colon cancer. They made sure all had equal treatment - that is, six to eight weeks of chemotherapy after surgery to remove the cancerous part of the colon.

Survival rates were very similar - 65 per cent among the African-Americans and 66 per cent among the whites. Moreover, the African-Americans had fewer side effects from chemotherapy, for reasons that aren't clear. The researchers point out that minority groups often don't get included in research studies. They hope these findings will go some way towards redressing the balance, and help allow all ethnic groups equal access to early cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Source

Journal of the National Cancer Institute 7th August 2002