Latinos with lung-cancer live longer

A study by the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine shows that Hispanic lung-cancer patients seem to live longer than white or African American patients.

MIAMI, FL -- Research performed by Miller's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center says that, "as with several other types of cancer, certain yet-to-be-defined genetic and/or environmental factors put Hispanic patients at a survival advantage."

UM said in a communique that to carry out this study, published Monday online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, a team of scientists led by Brian Lally and Ali Saeed studied the cases of 172,398 adult patients diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer (the most common) between 1988 and 2007.

"Compared with white patients, Hispanic patients had a 15 per cent lower risk of dying during the years of the study, whether they were born in the United States or not," UM said.

That fact is significant, according to Lally, "because it shows that our findings are indicative of the Hispanic population in general and not specific to specific groups of Hispanics."

"Our findings will motivate researchers and physicians to understand why Hispanics have more favorable outcomes and may shed light on potential environmental factors and/or genetic factors that can explain our observations," Saeed said.

Researchers also found that Hispanics are the most likely to develop the kind of lung cancer called bronchioalveolar carcinoma, which tends to be less dangerous than other types.

Saeed said that this could result from genetic predispositions or lower smoking rates.

He said the results of this study could be included in the "Hispanic paradox," the fact that Hispanics diagnosed with certain illnesses tend to show more favorable results than the average, regardless of socio-economic factors that could lead one to believe the opposite.

This paradox is seen, for example, in breast and prostate cancer, as well as in cardiovascular disease, but until now was never shown to be true in cases of lung cancer.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, estimates that lung cancer is the second-most diagnosed type of cancer and the biggest cause of cancer-related deaths nationwide.

According to its figures, 1.4 million people were diagnosed between 1998-2006 with lung cancer.

Hispanics were the ethnic group with the lowest incidence of lung cancer with 37.3 per cent, while blacks were highest at 76.1 per cent, followed by whites with 69.7 per cent, native Americans, 48.4 per cent, and Asian Americans, 38.4 per cent.