Racial Disparities in Outcomes Among Asians With Gastric Cancer in the USA.

BACKGROUND/AIM: We aimed to evaluate disparities in presentation and treatment of gastric cancer (GC), including time between diagnosis and treatment, based on race, focusing on Japanese patients within the USA.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The National Cancer Database was queried for patients diagnosed with GC between 2004-2013. Clinical and treatment variables were summarized by race (White, non-Japanese Asian, Japanese). The association between race and overall survival (OS) was evaluated using the log-rank test.

RESULTS

A total of 79,481 patients were included. Japanese patients received surgery the earliest after diagnosis in all stages. Regarding radiotherapy, white patients had the shortest waiting time followed by Asian and Japanese patients. Asian patients had better OS at both 3 and 5 years of follow-up. White patients were associated with the lowest OS.

CONCLUSION

Japanese and Asian GC patients have better OS compared to White patients. Moreover, there were disparities in time to both GC diagnosis and treatment, with Japanese patients being sooner diagnosed and surgically treated, which may ultimately impact patient experience.