U.S. Black women face delays, disparities in breast cancer care, study finds

SACRAMENTO, the United States, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Older Black women in the United States are less likely to receive standard breast cancer treatments and face longer delays in starting therapy compared to white women, according to a major study examining racial disparities in cancer care released Thursday.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, analyzed data from over 258,000 women aged 65 and older with early-stage breast cancer.

It showed about 18 percent of Black women did not receive guideline-recommended care, compared to 15 percent of white women.

"Non-Hispanic Black race was associated with increased odds of not receiving guideline-concordant care and less timely treatment initiation," said the study. This disparity persisted even after accounting for factors like age, cancer stage, insurance coverage and neighborhood income levels.

White patients were more than twice as likely as Black patients to begin treatment within 90 days of diagnosis, according to the analysis of National Cancer Database records from 2010 to 2019.

The study found that Black women faced a 26 percent higher risk of death from all causes compared to white women. However, this gap narrowed to about 5 percent when researchers accounted for differences in receiving standard recommended treatments and other clinical and socioeconomic factors.

"These findings suggest that optimizing timely access and receipt of guideline-concordant care in older adults may represent a modifiable pathway for mitigating racial differences in all-cause mortality among patients with early breast cancer," wrote the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.

The racial disparities occurred despite most patients having Medicare coverage, a federal health insurance program, suggesting that insurance alone does not eliminate unequal access to care. About 79 percent of Black patients and 84 percent of white patients in the study had Medicare coverage.

The research added to growing evidence of persistent racial inequities in cancer care and outcomes. Previous studies have shown that Black women face a 40 percent higher breast cancer death rate compared to white women, according to the researchers.