LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Childhood cancer survival in the highly vulnerable population of South Texas: A cohort study

Photo by nci from unsplash

Objective This study examines childhood cancer survival rates and prognostic factors related to survival in the majority Hispanic population of South Texas. Methods The population-based cohort study used Texas Cancer… Click to show full abstract

Objective This study examines childhood cancer survival rates and prognostic factors related to survival in the majority Hispanic population of South Texas. Methods The population-based cohort study used Texas Cancer Registry data (1995-2017) to examine survival and prognostic factors. Cox proportional hazard models and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used for survival analyses. Results The 5-year relative survival rate for 7,999 South Texas cancer patients diagnosed at 0-19 years was 80.3% for all races/ethnicities. Hispanic patients had statistically significant lower 5-year relative survival rates than non-Hispanic White (NHW) patients for male and female together diagnosed at age [≥]5 years. When comparing survival among Hispanic and NHW patients for the most common cancer, acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), the difference was most significant in the 15-19 years age range, with 47.7% Hispanic patients surviving at 5 years compared to 78.4% of NHW counterparts. The multivariable-adjusted analysis showed that males had statistically significant 13% increased mortality risk than females [hazard ratio (HR): 1.13, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.01-1.26] for all cancer types. Comparing to patients diagnosed at ages 1-4 years, patients diagnosed at age < 1 year (HR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.36-2.09), at 10-14 year (HR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.20-1.68), or at 15-19 years (HR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.20-1.64) had significant increased mortality risk. Comparing to NHW patients, Hispanic patients showed 38% significantly increased mortality risk for all cancer types, 66% for ALL, and 52% for brain cancer. Conclusions South Texas Hispanic patients had lower 5-year relative survival than NHW patients especially for ALL. Male gender, diagnosis at age<1 year or 10-19 years were also associated with decreased childhood cancer survival. Despite advances in treatment, Hispanic patients lag significantly behind NHW patients. Further cohort studies in South Texas are warranted to identify additional factors affecting survival and to develop interventional strategies.

Keywords: year; survival; cancer survival; south texas; childhood cancer; cancer

Journal Title: PLOS ONE
Year Published: 2022

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.