(October 19, 2018) A retroactive study using SEER, or Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results, looked at the trends in ovarian cancer from 1983 to 2012. In almost 3 decades, the incidence of ovarian cancer per 100,000 fell from 13.7 to 10.8 and the median survival increased from 34 months to 52 months. When this survival median is broken down by race, however, the statistics change. Although the difference in median survival between white women and black women was 7 months for the first decade (34 months versus 27 months respectively), it increased to sixteen months by the end of the study. There was also a gap in median survival between those who were considered low-poverty and those considered high poverty. During the first third of the study there was a 4 month difference, whereas, over the course of the three decades, it increased to 12 months.
The study concluded by stating that these statistics, “demonstrated the decreasing incidence of ovarian cancer with an observed improvement in relative survival over three decades in a large sample. However, the survival gaps among races and SESs, or socioeconomic status, significantly widened over the three decades.”
