Survival of the Hmong population diagnosed with colon and rectal cancers in the United States.

Background: The Hmong population constitutes an independent ethnic group historically dispersed throughout Southeast Asia; fallout from the Vietnam War led to their forced migration to the United States as refugees. This study seeks to investigate characteristics of the Hmong population diagnosed with in colorectal cancer (CRC) as well as survival within this population.

Methods: Cases of colon and rectal adenocarcinoma diagnosed between 2004 and 2017 were identified from the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Summary statistics of demographic, clinical, socioeconomic, and treatment variables were generated with emphasis on age and stage at the time of diagnosis. Cox-proportional hazard models were constructed for survival analysis.

Results: Of 881,243 total CRC cases within the NCDB, 120 were classified as Hmong. The average age of Hmong individuals at diagnosis was 58.9 years compared 68.7 years for Non-Hispanic White (NHW) individuals (p < 0.01). The distribution of analytic stage differed between the Hmong population and the reference NHW population, with 61.8% of Hmong individuals compared to 45.8% of NHW individuals with known stage being diagnosed at stage III or IV CRC compared to 0, I, or II (p = 0.001). However, there was no difference in OS when adjusting for potential confounders (HR 1.00 [0.77-1.33]; p = 0.998).

Conclusions: Hmong individuals are nearly a decade younger at the time of diagnosis of CRC compared to the NHW individuals. However, these data do not suggest an association between Hmong ethnicity and overall survival, when compared to the NHW population.