A new study did not find evidence for a different genetic profile in black lung cancer patients compared with white patients, reports Healio. 

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The lung cancer mortality rate is higher in black patients than white patients, but it is unknown why this is the case, MacConaill said.

“We wanted to investigate whether there were differences at the genetic level between lung cancers from the different groups,” MacConaill said.

In this 5-year study of lung cancer disparities — funded by the NIH — MacConaill and colleagues profiled and analyzed 509 lung cancer tumors specimens (319 adenocarcinomas; 142 squamous cell carcinomas) from 245 black patients and 264 white patients treated at Baptist Cancer Center in Memphis, Tennessee, between 2004 and 2012.

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