Dr. Khan on Racial Disparities with Patient Surgical Outcomes in GI Tract Cancer

Sajid A Khan MD, FACS, FSSO, associate professor of Surgery (Oncology), Yale School of Medicine, section chief, Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and Mixed Tumors, co-director, Team Science, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, Yale Cancer Center, discusses racial disparities with patient surgical outcomes in gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancer.

A retrospective cohort study of patients was conducted to examine racial disparities in quality of care of patients with GI tract cancers.

The study found Black patients had a lower rate of negative surgical margins compared with White patients, and negative surgical margins correspond with better survival outcomes with this cancer, Kahn says. Though Black patients found to be less likely to have negative surgical margins compared with White patients across all GI tract cancers, the most pronounced disparities were found in esophageal cancer, rectal cancer, and bile duct cancer, Kahn explains.

Many GI cancers are epithelial-based and require the removal of an adequate number of lymph nodes, Kahn continues. Despite this, it was also found that Black patients were less likely than White patients to have an adequate numbers of lymph nodes removed during surgery for GI cancers, Kahn explains. These disparate outcomes were most pronounced for pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, colon cancer, and small intestinal cancers, Kahn concludes.