“Social Inequities in Cancer” is a compendium of articles that identify barriers and metrics on the topic of modifiable and unnecessary cancer inequalities. Social inequities have long been recognised as a strong contributing factor in health and cancer inequalities for the past several decades. Despite progress in cancer treatment, cancer incidence, mortality and survival vary markedly between and within countries. Globalisation, greater life expectancy, emerging analytical technologies, and the scalability of big data have revolutionized the vantage point from which social inequities can be studied. The focus of these articles is inequalities as they relate to cancer, with the inequalities ranging from the community to the global scale. Disclaimer: Where authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of the International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization.

Endometrial cancer is a common malignancy of the female reproductive system that accounts for approximately 6% of all cancers in women. Despite having a lower incidence of endometrial cancer, black women suffer from a disproportionate mortality rate almost twice as high as their white counterparts. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the role of county socioeconomic measures (abstracted from the 1990 U.S Census) in determining survival and stage at presentation among black and white women with endometrial cancer. The study population consisted of 30,187 (94.7%) white and 1,705 (5.3%) black women registered in the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. When stratified by race, statistical analysis revealed significant differences between black and white women across all clinical and county socioeconomic variables. Black study subjects had a significantly lower median survival time of 87 months compared to 118 months in white subjects. Additionally they were more likely to be diagnosed at advanced (regional and distant) stages of disease and experienced a higher frequency of Grades III and IV tumors. Compared to their white counterparts, black patients resided in undereducated, impoverished counties with a median household income [less than or equal to] $30,000/yr, and an unemployment rate [greater than or equal to] 5.3%. The area-based measures: county poverty level, educational attainment, median household income, and unemployment rate were significantly associated with cause-specific survival for the entire study population. In univariate analysis, lower county socioeconomic status was associated with worse survival for both black and white women. Within socioeconomic stratum, black women were more likely to die than white women indicating that racial disparities in survival are magnified for black patients residing in counties with lower socioeconomic indices. The addition of prognostic covariates eliminated survival disparities based upon county socioeconomic measures among white women. However, within each county socioeconomic stratum, differences in adjusted mortality risk between black and white women were still evident. While county socioeconomic status is overall associated with survival, it plays a more dramatic role in predicting morality risk among black subjects. Analysis showed that the county attributes: percentage below the poverty level and percentage of unemployed persons are significantly associated with advanced stage disease. These findings suggest that contextual socioeconomic factors may play a role in tumor development and progression before diagnosis and that interventions targeted to socioeconomically disadvantaged counties may increase patient survival from endometrial cancer and influence the frequency of high risk disease.

In both industrialized and lessdeveloped societies, cancer incidence and survival are related to socioeconomic factors. This fascinating volume, the first to examine the magnitude of these socioeconomic differences in relation to cancer, provides vital information for all those interested in public health. Cancer incidence and survival are related to socioeconomic status in both industrialized and less developed countries. These differences can be explained, in part, by known risk factors, particularly tobacco smoke, occupational exposures, reproductive behaviour, diet and biological agents. T.

Developed by the American Cancer Society this new textbook designed for a wide range of learners and practitioners is a comprehensive reference covering the diagnosis of cancer, and a range of related issues that are key to a multidisciplinary approach to cancer and critical to cancer control and may be used in conjunction with the book, The American Cancer Society's Oncology in Practice: Clinical Management. Edited by leading clinicians in the field and a stellar contributor list from the US and Europe, this book is written in an easy to understand style by multidisciplinary teams of medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and other specialists, reflecting day-to-day decision-making and clinical practice. Input from pathologists, surgeons, radiologists, and other specialists is included wherever relevant and comprehensive treatment guidelines are provided by expert contributors where there is no standard recognized treatment. This book is an ideal resource for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of cancer prevention, screening, and follow-up, which are central to the ACS's worldwide mission on cancer control.