Objectives: Because the population in Florida is 25.6% Hispanic, it is possible to evaluate the influence of race and ethnicity within clinically relevant subgroups of women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), including histology and tumor grade. This study explores racial/ethnic disparities in the incidence of EOC in Florida by histology and tumor grade.
Methods: This study is an analysis of the Florida Cancer Database System. All incidence EOC cases from 2001 through 2015 were identified. Age-adjusted incidences were calculated and trends modeled by race/ethnicity and histology using Joinpoint and Poisson regression.
Results: In total, 80% of the 21,731 women with EOC were White, followed by Hispanic (13.1%) and non-Hispanic Black (7.9%). All races/ethnicities had statistically significant declines in incidence, with non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black women having the steepest declines (annual percentage change -2.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] -5.9 to -2.1 and annual percentage change -2.8, 95% CI -4.8 to -1.5, respectively). A decreased incidence trend across the time period was seen for all subgroups (relative risk 0.97 [95% CI 0.96-0.98], 0.96 [95% CI 0.96-0.99], and 0.98 [95% CI 0.96-0.99] for non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic). High-grade EOC incidence for all groups did not change with time.
Conclusions: We found significant declines in the incidence of EOC for all races/ethnicities, but not for high-grade EOC. The observed incidence decline in Hispanic women differs from previous research. More research is needed to understand women the causes of overall racial/ethnic differences and the decline in EOC.