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Hamburg (dpa) - According to a study in Hamburg, people living in better residential areas have, on average, higher chances of surviving cancer than residents of socially disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Hamburg Cancer Register compared cancer survival between the districts of a large city using the example of the Hanseatic city for the first time.
In some cases they found considerable differences.
In the socio-economically strongest quarter, for example, 93.8 percent of patients with prostate cancer did not die from the disease in the next five years.
According to the DKFZ, it was almost 15 percentage points less in the weakest parts of the city.
In the case of colon cancer, 72.9 percent survived in good residential areas, in poorer areas only 62.1 percent.
The difference between breast cancer (8 percentage points) and lung cancer (2.5 percentage points) was not so great.
The study is based on data from 73 106 patients who were recorded in the Hamburg Cancer Registry and who suffered from colon, lung, breast or prostate cancer between 2004 and 2018.
To evaluate the districts, the epidemiologists used the Hamburg social index, which records, among other things, the unemployment rate, number of social housing, apartment size and household income.
One possible explanation for the sometimes considerable differences is that preventive medical examinations are less frequent for people in weaker residential areas, said the DKFZ.
If cancer is only discovered in later stages, the prognosis is worse.
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The comparison of individual urban areas is particularly interesting, said Lina Jansen from the DKFZ.
"Differences in the accessibility of medical care within a city play a smaller role than in regions that include both urban and rural areas."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210304-99-680988 / 2
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