Nativity disparities in late-stage diagnosis and cause-specific survival among Hispanic women with invasive cervical cancer: an analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data.

PURPOSE

While cervical cancer screening and risk behaviors have been found to vary among US- and foreign-born Hispanic women, many cancer epidemiology studies have conceptualized Hispanics as a homogenous group. Here, we examine differences in cervical cancer stage at diagnosis and survival among Hispanic women by nativity.

METHODS

We use data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program, 1998-2008. Nativity was based on place of birth and was categorized as US versus foreign born. Distant and regional tumors were classified as late stage, while local tumors were classified as early stage.

RESULTS

Forty-seven percent of cases of invasive cervical cancer among Hispanics were diagnosed at a late stage, and over half of invasive cervical cancer cases were among foreign-born women. Foreign-born Hispanic women were significantly more likely than US-born Hispanics to have late-stage diagnosis, after adjusting for age at diagnosis and tumor histology (adjusted odds ration = 1.09, p value = 0.003). There was heterogeneity in the association between nativity and survival by stage at diagnosis. Among cases with early-stage diagnosis, survival was poorer among foreign-born versus US-born Hispanics after adjusting for age at diagnosis, histology, and cancer-directed therapy [adjusted hazard ratios (HR) = 1.31, p value = 0.030]. However, among cases with late-stage diagnosis, survival was better among foreign-born Hispanics (adjusted HR = 0.81, p value < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

We hypothesize that nativity differences in survival may be indicative of diverse risk, screening, and treatment profiles. Given such differences, it may be inappropriate to aggregate Hispanics as a single group for cervical cancer research.