Background Immigration has taken the central stage in world politics, especially in the developed countries like Germany, where the continuous flow of immigrants has been well documented since 1960s. Strikingly, emerging data suggest that migrant patients have a poorer response to the treatment and lower survival rates in their new host country, raising concerns about health disparities. Herein, we present our investigation on the treatment response rate and cancer survival in German patients with and without an immigrant background that were treated at our comprehensive cancer center in Germany. Methods Initially, we considered 8162 cancer patients treated at the Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, Germany (April 2002–December 2015) for matched-pair analysis. Subsequently, the German patients with a migration background and those from the native German population were manually identified and catalogued using a highly specific name-based algorithm. The clinical parameters such as demographic characteristics, tumor characteristics, defined staging criteria, and primary therapy were further adjusted. Using these stringent criteria, a total of 422 patients (n = 211, Germans with migration background; n = 211, native German population) were screened to compare for the treatment response and survival rates (i.e., 5-year overall survival, progression-free survival, and time to progression). Results Compared to the cohort with migration background, the cohort without migration background was slightly older (54.9 vs. 57.9 years) while having the same sex distribution (54.5% vs. 55.0% female) and longer follow-up time (36.9 vs. 42.6 months). We did not find significant differences in cancer survival (5-year overall survival, P = 0.771) and the response rates (Overall Remission Rate; McNemar’s test, P = 0.346) between both collectives. Conclusion Contrary to prior reports, we found no significant differences in cancer survival between German patients with immigrant background and native German patients. Nevertheless, the advanced treatment protocols implemented at our comprehensive cancer center may possibly account for the low variance in outcome. To conduct similar studies with a broader perspective, we propose that certain risk factors (country-of-origin-specific infections, dietary habits, epigenetics for chronic diseases etc.) should be considered, specially in the future studies that will recruit new arrivals from the 2015 German refugee crisis.

Background: There are several studies that investigate health inequalities in Germany due to its being a destination for immigrants since the 1960s. In this study, we pay specific attention to differences in cancer survival between German patients with and without a migration background being treated at a comprehensive cancer center. This becomes of particular interest since previous studies suggested that immigrant patients have a worse response to treatment and lower survival rates in their new host country.Methods: We considered 8162 cancer patients being treated at the CIO Bonn of the University Hospital of Bonn between April 2002 and December 2015 for our matched-pair analysis. Patients with migrant background were identified using a manual name-based algorithm with high specifity and then matched with patients without migrant background adjusting demographic characteristics, tumor features, defined staging criteria and primary therapy. Finally, 211 patients with a migrant background were matched to 211 patients without a migrant background and then compared with regard to response to treatment and survival rates (i.e. Overall survival, Progression-free survival and Time to progression).Results: Compared to the cohort with migration background, the cohort without migration background is slightly older (57.9 vs. 54.9 years) with equal gender distribution (55.0% vs. 54.5% female) and had a longer follow-up time (42.6 vs. 36.9 months). We did not find significant differences in cancer survival (overall survival; P=0.802) and response rates (ORR; McNemar's test, P=0.3458) between both collectives.Conclusion: In contrast to previous studies, we found no evidence that migration background of cancer patients being significantly affects response rates and survival. A worse outcome in populations of immigrant origin most likely has complex reasons, but highly standardized procedures in a comprehensive cancer center may contribute positively to reducing detrimental effects.