MONDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Young blacks have a higher rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma than other patients, but their two- and five-year survival rates are similar to those for Asians and whites who develop the cancer, researchers report in the October issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery.
Mark C. Weissler, M.D., of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, N.C., and colleagues evaluated data from the 1973 to 2002 National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results tumor registry. They examined rates of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in blacks, whites and Asians younger than age 30.
In patients under age 20, the incidence rates in 1973-2002 were 1.61 per one million people (adjusted to the 2000 population) for blacks, 0.61 per million for whites, and 0.95 per million for Asians. From ages 20 to 29, the incidence increased slightly in blacks (1.87) and whites (0.96), but substantially in Asians (7.18). Relative survival rates at two and five years for blacks younger than 30 years were 84 percent and 64 percent, respectively, which were similar to those of other patients.
"Blacks younger than 20 years have increased incidence rates of nasopharyngeal carcinoma relative to whites and may be the only group having a higher nasopharyngeal carcinoma incidence rate than Asians. Two- and five-year survival rates of blacks, whites and Asians younger than 30 years with nasopharyngeal carcinoma are similar," the authors conclude.
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