Explaining state-level differences in brain cancer mortality in the United States by population ancestries: a spatial approach

Abstract

To some extent, the spatial differences in brain cancer mortality rate appear to arise from the difference in the mortality betweenethnic groups. In the United States (US), for example, brain cancer mortality rate is higher among White Non-Hispanic thanother groups. The US brain cancer mortality data (age-adjusted and pooled over 2007-2011) were gathered from the State CancerProfiles web site. The brain cancer mortality rates were associated with the geographic distribution of different ancestral andethnic groups at the state-level by applying three different statistical analyses to find out the most evident spatial patterns. Thegeographic distribution of the brain cancer mortality was related to the proportion of foreign-born Black and White in the USpopulation so that the mortality rate was high in the states were the proportion of foreign-born was low and vice versa. The onlyancestries which increased the mortality among White Non-Hispanic in the US population were from a relatively restricted area inEurope including Germany, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium, and the Nordic countries except for Iceland.This study gave reasons for the discussion about the possible existence of population-level genetic susceptibilities to the braincancer and/or higher risk of mortality. Brain cancer mortality in general as well as the present results apply mainly to gliomas.