The unclear role of ethnicity in health inequalities: the scenario of oral cancer incidence and survival in the British South Asian population.

Previous research has shown that south Asians residing in the south east of England have greater incidence rates of oral cancer than the majority population but little is known as to whether there are also differences in oral cancer survival. We compared the survival from oral cancer in the south Asian population of south-east England relative to the non-south Asian population and, after adjustment for potential confounders, we did not find any evidence of decreased survival. Indeed there was evidence that British south Asian males have significantly better survival than their non-south Asian peers in the south east of England.