Racial differences in pancreatic cancer: Comparison of survival and histologic types of pancreatic carcinoma in Asians, Blacks, and Whites in the United States

SEER data for histologically confirmed carcinomas of the pancreas for 1973- 1995 from Hawaii, San Francisco, and Seattle (n = 10,621) were analyzed to compare the survival and types of carcinomas in various racial groups. Thes e geographic sites were selected because each included a sizable number of Asian patients. The median survival after diagnosis in unadjusted data was longer in Asian patients than in whites. After adjustment for age at diagno sis and year of diagnosis, only the survival advantage of Asian women over whites and blacks persisted as a statistically significant difference. Raci al differences were no longer statistically significant when further adjust ments were made for stage, grade, and morphology. The proportion of papilla ry carcinomas or mucinous cystadenocarcinomas was higher in Asians than in whites and blacks (p = 0.02), and patients with these neoplasms had a longe r median survival than did patients with ductal adenocarcinoma (12 vs. 3.3 months). The fraction of Asian patients with lower stages and grades of car cinomas also was higher than among white and black patients. Longer surviva l of Asian compared with white and black patients with pancreatic carcinoma is at least partly explained by their higher proportion of less aggressive carcinomas at the time of diagnosis.