Liver Cancer Rates Rising Rapidly in U.S. Overall prognosis poor with racial disparities in healthcare access, mortality rates

The incidence of liver cancer in the U.S. has doubled since the 1970s and is expected to continue increasing until at least 2030, with the overall prognosis remaining poor and with substantial disparities in death rates by sex, race/ethnicity, and state, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Major differences in risk factors and inequalities in access to healthcare are the primary drivers of these disparities, an ACS research team led by Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, reported online in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Between 2010 and 2014, liver cancer death rates were 5.5 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic whites, 8.4 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic blacks, and 11.9 per 100,000 for American Indian/Alaska Natives, according to their analysis of data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Death rates also varied by state. In North Dakota, for instance, liver cancer deaths occurred in 3.8 per 100,000 people whereas in the District Columbia, there were 9.6 deaths per 100,000. Paradoxically, liver cancer stage distribution at the time of diagnosis was very similar between patients of different races and ethnicities, leading the authors to conclude that the increased death rates in non-Hispanic blacks and Native Americans is driven by inequalities in access to care. https://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/65947?xid=nl_mpt_Weekly_Education_2017-06-21&eun=g5883165d1r