Racial Differences in the Treatment of Early-Stage Lung Cancer

Abstract
We believe that racial differences in social and economic factors and in coexisting illness may have confounded the finding, reported by Bach et al. (Oct. 14 issue),1 that black patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer were less likely to receive surgical treatment and to survive than similar white patients. We offer four suggestions for dealing with these potential confounding variables more effectively.