The Clinic's research shows the risk of death for black leukemia patients in their twenties is 10-25% higher than white patients. Lead author on the study, Aaron Viny speculates some socioeconomic factors, such as income and access to health care may be contributing to that disparity gap. But he also says less participation in clinical trials by black patients, might be keeping them from getting the most innovate treatments, and preventing doctors from learning more about the disease effects that population.
Aaron Viny: The information that researchers would get from the results would be beneficial to tailoring the therapy in the future. And poor participation keeps us from understanding those outcomes.
Viny says efforts that were successful in closing the racial gaps among child patients should now be focused on the twenty-somethings with the disease. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.