According to a study, white British individuals with cancerous brain tumors are three times more likely than people from any other race to die within a year.
King’s College London researchers looked into whether race could affect survival rates from malignant brain tumors. They found that people of British descent are much more likely to die in the first year after being diagnosed.
This is the first study of its kind. It found that those who identified themselves as “other ethnic” were 30% less likely to die in a year.
Also, patients of three different ethnic groups had lower death rates than patients who were white British.
Researchers found, for example that Indians were less likely than others to develop a brain cancer.
New research has shown that patients who are white and have brain tumors in their brains are three times more likely than people from any other race to die within a year. (stock image).
Ms Hiba Wanis, a PhD student and research assistant within the Centre for Cancer, Society & Public Health at King’s, found that brain tumours were diagnosed more often in white British people.
But, even with this, the death rate for white patients was higher than that of people from other ethnicities.
Ms Wanis examined data from 24,319 adults in England who were diagnosed with malignant primary brain tumors between 2012-2017.
After determining the death risk for each ethnic group (including white British, Pakistani and Bangladeshi whites), she calculated it up to one years after diagnosis.
Ms Wanis discovered that brain tumors claimed the lives of 13.339 white British citizens (64%) over a five-year period.
It was a comparison of 19 people from Bangladesh (63%) who were affected by brain tumours.
Ms Wanis was especially interested in this field of research, as it had not been extensively explored before. She stated: “Brain tumors are less researched than other types of cancers. Until now, there has never been a study that examined the effect of an individual’s race on survival of brain tumours using data from patients across England.
“The National Disease Registration Service, now NHS Digital, has improved the detail of cancer data and provided an opportunity for researchers to study the effects of various ethnic groups on the survival rate of brain tumours across England.
The study results clearly show a link between survival and ethnicity, but there may be other factors that could play an important role in these notable deaths.
Ms Wanis said that it was too early to speculate about the reasons for these differences. However, a range of factors could be at play.
“These factors include the time people seek out their doctor for information about their symptoms, when a diagnosis of the disease is made and what treatment options are available.
Ms. Wanis has been in discussions with colleagues to discuss how she can further investigate these issues, and how they can include data from patient representatives so they can explore topics like how accurate death registrations are for patients of ethnic minorities.
The first such study found that people who identify themselves as ‘other’ ethnic were 33% less likely than those who are categorized as white. Stock image
She stated that these findings will help determine if death reporting is comparable among the groups and if there are better prognostic variables to increase survival.
Ms. Wanis, along with her associates, hopes that the findings of this study will enable doctors to offer relevant and precise information regarding a patient’s prognosis as well as help patients understand why there may be a greater or lesser chance of survival.
Michael Jenkinson is a University of Liverpool professor of Neurosurgery, Surgical Trials, and has commented on the results.
He added that this new study not only investigates the effects of ethnicity in brain tumour survival, but also examines different types among English patients.
“As data quality and quantity have improved significantly in recent years researchers were able to conduct a detailed analysis and help fill in any gaps in this under-researched area.
Prof Jenkinson is the chair of the NCRI Brain Group and said: “But, further research is necessary to examine other factors that could play a part in these differences, such as the patient’s lifestyle or when they were diagnosed.
“The findings of further investigations could help doctors give patients the right information regarding their prognosis.
These findings were presented to the NCRI Festival.