'Black Americans with blood cancer do not live as long as white patients with the disease, a new study finds, even when they receive equal levels of care.
Researchers looked at 84 black patients and more than 1,500 non-black patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which is a rare disease in blacks. All patients received the same treatments.
The time from diagnosis to referral for treatment was shorter for blacks than whites, but blacks were more likely to have more advanced CLL at the time of referral. Blacks responded as well as whites to first-line treatment, but their cancer progressed more rapidly, and their survival time was shorter.'