Evidence-based care eliminates racial disparity in colon cancer survival rates, study findsPosted in Articles, Health/Medicine/Genetics, Media Archive, United States on 2015-02-02 15:42Z by Steven |
Evidence-based care eliminates racial disparity in colon cancer survival rates, study finds
Stanford Medicine News Center
2015-01-26
Lisa Marie Potter
Office of Communication & Public Affairs
A new study finds that equitable delivery of evidence-based care eliminates the racial disparity in colon-cancer survival rates.
For the past two decades, the National Cancer Institute has documented a persistent racial disparity in colon cancer survival rates in the United States.
African-American patients have consistently had lower survival rates when compared with white patients, despite a nationwide decline in colon cancer deaths overall.
Now, a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that more equitable delivery of evidence-based care can close this gap. Furthermore, the investigators found that evidence-based care was delivered at higher rates within integrated health-care organizations — those in which one organization provides all the patient’s health-care services, hospital care and insurance. The study reports that five-year death rates were lower for all colon cancer patients treated in an integrated health-care system, and the differences in survival by race were eliminated.
The study’s findings, published online Jan. 26 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, support the idea that providing equitable, high-quality, evidence-based care is a powerful tool in eliminating cancer-treatment disparities.
“Historically, we’ve taken less than a critical eye on our own health-care system in terms of how we can take the lead in addressing disparities,” said lead author Kim Rhoads, MD, MPH, assistant professor of surgery. “The big takeaway in this paper is that it’s treatment, not necessarily patient factors, but following evidence-based guidelines that gives all patients the best chance for survival. Our work also suggests a real opportunity to equalize these racial differences.”…
Read the entire press release here.