Taylor DB, Osazuwa-Peters OL, Okafor SI, et al. - Findings from this cohort study of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who were members of racial and ethnic minority groups revealed significantly worse outcomes in Black patients that were not fully explained by stage of presentation. There could be unexplored multilevel factors that are related to social determinants of health and differences in HNC outcomes.

• In this population-based retrospective cohort study, data from the 2007 to 2016 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database were obtained from 21,966 patients with HNC who belong to racial and ethnic minority groups.

• Participants included 6,072 women [27.6%]; 9,229 [42.0%] non-Hispanic Black, 6,893 [31.4%] Hispanic, 5,342 [24.3%] Asian/Pacific Islander, and 502 [2.3%] American Indian/Alaska Native persons.

• Poorer outcomes were seen in Black individuals compared with Asian Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic individuals.

• Black patients were found to have the highest proportion with very low socioeconomic status (3,482 [37.7%]) and the lowest crude 5-year overall survival (46%).

• Factors that were significantly related to HNC-specific survival and stage of presentation were: race, sex, health insurance, marital status, and socioeconomic status.