Published online in CANCER, a new study explains how socioeconomic status exhibits racial and ethnic inequalities in childhood cancer survival. The study findings may pinpoint the areas that require maximum resources so as to narrow the racial and ethnic survival gap for all main childhood cancers.

Survival rates are lower in black and Hispanic patients contrasted with non-Hispanic white patients regarding most childhood cancers. Rebecca Kehm, Ph.D., and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the Masonic Cancer Center tried to find out if racial and ethnic inequalities in childhood cancer survival are related to primary disparities in socioeconomic status

The team evaluated population-based cancer survival data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database for black, white, and Hispanic children, between 0-19 years of age, diagnosed from 2000 to 2011. Amid the diagnosed 31,866 patients, whites significantly outpaced black and Hispanic children in survival for numerous childhood cancers.

A significant link was noted between socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and survival for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, neuroblastoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. On the contrary, socioeconomic status did not notably add to racial and ethnic disparities in survival for other types of childhood cancer like central nervous system tumors, soft tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin lymphoma, Wilms tumor, and germ cell tumors.

"These findings provide insight for future intervention efforts aimed at closing the survival gap," said Dr. Kehm. "For cancers in which socioeconomic status is a key factor in explaining racial and ethnic survival disparities, behavioral and supportive interventions that address social and economic barriers to effective care are warranted; however, for cancers in which survival is less influenced by socioeconomic status, more research is needed on underlying differences in tumor biology and drug processing."