The present study found that Pakistani men and women, and
Chinese men had better survival than their White counterparts.
This is similar to Goggins and Wong’s [21] study that reported
Indian/Pakistani and Chinese groups had better survival than the
White group, although these results only reached statistical
significance in the larger Chinese group. Studies in the US have
examined survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and
intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma separately and found that Black
patients generally had worse survival than other groups [17–20].
Conversely, in the present study, Black African women had better
survival than White women, and there was no statistically
significant difference between the Black Caribbean and White
groups. Stage of disease at diagnosis may be responsible for
variation in survival among ethnic group. Some ethnic groups are
intensively monitored for HBV and HCV infection resulting in
earlier diagnosis and thus perhaps affecting their survival.
Unfortunately, this information is not currently available in the
National Cancer Data Repository, though future work examining
survival should assess the impact of stage of disease where
possible