Abstract C054: Gastric cancer survival among Puerto Rican Hispanics: A ten-year population-based analysis
Authors: Gonzalez-Pons Maria , Torres-Cintrón Carlos , Soto-Salgado Marievelisse , Morgan Douglas , Cruz-Correa Marcia 
Published: August 2020

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the top five diagnosed malignancies among U.S. Hispanics. In Puerto Rico during 2011-2015, GC was the 10th and 11th most diagnosed cancer among Puerto Rican Hispanic men and women, respectively. During the same period, GC was the 6th leading cause of cancer death in men and the 8th in women. Although the incidence of GC has decreased during the last two decades in all US racial/ethnic groups, the mortality associated with GC continues to be high and disproportionately affects Hispanics. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the overall five-year relative survival of Puerto Rican Hispanics (PRH) with GC during a ten-year period (2001-2005 and 2006-2010) to that of non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB), and Hispanics living in the US.

Methods: Data were obtained from the Puerto Rico Central Cancer Registry. Primary cases with diagnostic confirmation of GC, malignancies arising primarily from the gastroesophageal junction to the pylorus, ICD-O-3 codes C16.0 to C16.9 with histologic confirmation (using ICD-O-3 codes) reported during the period of January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2010 were included in the survival analysis. Five-year relative survival rates were calculated using the incidence case files. Analyses were performed using Stata 13.0 and SEER*Stat Software version 8.3.5.

Results: For the periods of 2001-2005,2006-2010, and 2011-2015, the age-adjusted incidence rate for GC was 10.5 per 100,000 (n =1,893), 8.8 per 100,000 (n = 1,775), and 8.2 per 100,000 (n = 1,819), respectively. The overall five-year relative survival for 2001-2005 was 27.5% and 32.7% for 2006-2010. For the same study periods, when comparing overall adjusted 5-year relative survival among PRH to that of U.S. racial/ethnic groups, PRH had the lowest survival rates in localized and regional GC followed by U.S. non-Hispanic Blacks.

Conclusion: GC continues to be a common cancer among Hispanics despite the decrease in disease burden among other U.S. racial/ethnic groups. GC survival rates among PRH continue to be very low, and marked differences between racial/ethnic groups are observed in localized and regional gastric tumors, suggesting disparities in access to treatment. Studies evaluating the social, genetic, and/or environmental risk factors for GC are of utmost importance to establish health policy and to modify GC screening algorithms among Hispanic populations.

Citation Format: Maria Gonzalez-Pons, Carlos Torres-Cintrón, Marievelisse Soto-Salgado, Douglas Morgan, Marcia Cruz-Correa. Gastric cancer survival among Puerto Rican Hispanics: A ten-year population-based analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr C054.