RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Racial differences for bladder cancer survival have been reported for Caucasians and African-Americans. However, the survival experience of bladder cancer patients in Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups in the United States have not been fully explored. The purpose of this study was to compare the bladder cancer survival rates of Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Hawaiians and Caucasians in the U.S. population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data was from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute between 1973 and 1998. Cox proportional hazard models and Kaplan-Meier's estimates were used to study differences in survival between the ethnic groups, adjusting for factors including age at diagnosis, gender, year of diagnosis, histological grade, stage, surgery type, and radiation therapy. RESULTS: The overall bladder cancer survival was 66% for Japanese patients, 64% for Chinese patients, 61% for Caucasians, 59% for Filipino patients and 52% for Hawaiian patients. Differences in bladder cancer survival rates between Japanese and Chinese populations in the United States were not observed. In the Asian population, higher relative risks and lower 5-year survival were observed with increasing age at diagnosis (p for trend<0.0001), grade (p for trend<0.0001), and stage (p for trend<0.0001). Asian women had lower survival and a higher risk of death due to bladder cancer than Asian men. CONCLUSIONS: Japanese and Chinese bladder cancer patients had higher overall survival rates than Caucasians, while Filipino and Hawaiian patients had lower survival than Caucasians.