The National Cancer Data Base report on malignant epithelial ovarian carcinoma in African-American women.

Background: Epithelial ovarian carcinoma is the fifth most common cause of cancer death among African-American women. Although the incidence rate of ovarian carcinoma for whites is higher than that for African Americans, the relative survival rate for African Americans is poorer.

Methods: Data were cases submitted to the National Cancer Data Base for invasive epithelial tumors of the ovary diagnosed between 1985-1988 and 1990-1993. African-American women with epithelial ovarian carcinoma were compared with non-Hispanic white women with the same disease. The groups of white women with which African-American women were compared were classified as "White-same facility" and "White-other facility." "White-same facility" were white patients from hospitals that contributed a substantial proportion of African-American patients. "White-other facility" were white patients from hospitals that contributed few or no African-American patients. No patient had a history of prior cancer.

Results: African-American women with advanced invasive epithelial ovarian carcinoma were less often treated with combined surgery and chemotherapy and more often treated with chemotherapy only. African-American women were twice as likely as white women not to receive appropriate treatment. African-American women had poorer survival rates than white women from the same or different hospitals, regardless of income. Among staged cases, African-American women were more often diagnosed with Stage IV disease than either group of white women.

Conclusions: The current study findings show that African-American women with advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma received less aggressive treatment than white women and had a poorer prognosis.