November 5, 1999

Racial Disparity Found in Lung-Cancer Care

By DAVID L. WHEELER

A national study of more than 10,000 lung-cancer patients has found that black patients are 12.7-per-cent less likely than white patients to get life-saving surgery.

The scientists who conducted the study estimated that the lack of surgery resulted in about 44 unnecessarily early deaths for every 1,000 black lung-cancer patients. When black patients did receive the surgery, their survival rate was similar to white patients.

The researchers focused on

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