A study published in JAMA Network Open has found that a common blood test for ovarian cancer may miss the disease in some Black and Native American patients, leading to delays in treatment. This discovery is just one example of medical tests contributing to health care disparities, particularly when it comes to cancer outcomes for different racial and ethnic groups.
Researchers have been working to identify biases in medicine, but research in this area has been jeopardized by political pressures in recent years. Despite the high rates of ovarian cancer among Native American women and lower survival rates for Black women, the CA-125 blood test used to detect the cancer may not perform uniformly across racial and ethnic groups.
The study, conducted with support from the National Cancer Institute, found that Black and Native American patients were 23% less likely to have an elevated CA-125 level at ovarian cancer diagnosis compared to white patients, indicating that current thresholds for the test may be too high. The researchers have proposed new lower thresholds for the test that could lead to changes in guidelines to ensure all patients receive prompt care.
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