White British people diagnosed with brain tumours are more likely to die within 12 months than patients from other ethnic groups, a study suggests.
The research is the first of its kind to examine the impact of ethnicity on brain tumour survival. The results are being presented today at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) festival.
Hiba Wanis, of the Centre for Cancer, Society and Public Health at King’s College London, found that while brain tumours were diagnosed more often in white British people, at the same time, the one-year survival rate was lower than for patients of other ethnicities.
She analysed data from 24,319 adult patients living in England diagnosed with a malignant primary brain tumour between 2012 and 2017. The risk of death was calculated for ethnic categories including white British; any other white (includes any other white background and white Irish); other ethnic (includes all mixed ethnic groups and any other ethnic groups); Indian; Pakistani; Bangladeshi; Chinese; black African; and black Caribbean patients, up to one year after diagnoses.
Patients in England categorised as “other ethnic” were 30% less likely to die within a year than white British people, the research found. Patients from three other ethnic categories also had a decreased risk of death – 16% for Indian, 17% for other white and 19% for unknown.
Researchers hope the findings will help doctors provide relevant and accurate information on a patient’s prognosis, and also allow patients to understand why they could be at a higher or lower risk of survival than other groups of people.
“Brain tumours are under-researched compared with other cancers, and until now, no study has investigated the impact of a person’s ethnicity on brain tumour survival using information on patients in the whole of England,” said Wanis.
While the results show a correlation between ethnicity and survival rates, Wanis cautioned that other factors may also play a role.
“It is probably too early to speculate on what may lie behind these differences, but a number of factors may be involved. These include how early people ask their doctors about symptoms, how early in the disease a diagnosis is made, better reporting, lifestyle and cultural factors, deprivation, tumour characteristics and behaviour, and treatment options.”
Michael Jenkinson, the chair of the NCRI Brain Group and professor of neurosurgery and surgical trials at the University of Liverpool, who was not involved with the research, said: “This new study is not only the first to investigate the impact of ethnicity on brain tumour survival but also the first to consider the different types of brain tumours across patients in England.
“As the quantity and quality of data has significantly improved in recent years, the researchers have been able to carry out a detailed analysis, and the results help to fill in the gaps in what is currently an under-researched area of cancer.
“However, further research is needed to consider other factors that may play a role in these differences, such as a patient’s lifestyle and how early they received their diagnosis. Once explored further, the findings could be vital for doctors to provide appropriate information to patients on their prognosis.”
