Study: Class Affects Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Outcome More Than Race

African-American women with breast cancer are more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage of the disease than white women, not because of race but because of socioeconomic status, according to researchers at Michigan State University.

The result of a later diagnosis and treatment is African American women are more likely to die from the disease than white women.

Prior studies have shown that black women with breast cancer are more likely to have a shorter survival time than white women, but it was unclear whether this was due to race or poverty. Michigan State researchers developed a study to separate the influence of race from that of socioeconomic status on breast cancer stage, treatment and survival.

Investigators studied the data of 5,719 women with breast cancer taken from the Metropolitan Detroit Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry. A total of 593 of the women were found to have been on Medicaid.

When researchers removed socioeconomic status factors, the differences in breast cancer treatment and outcome between African American and white women were about the same. The patients' choice of treatment was the only factor that remained statistically significant between the two groups.

According to the study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, African American women were more likely to have breast conserving surgery compared with white women. However, African American women were less likely to have surgery overall.

"In our Metropolitan Detroit study population, race was not statistically significantly associated with unfavorable breast cancer outcomes," concluded the researchers. "However, low socioeconomic status was associated with late-stage breast cancer at diagnosis, type of treatment received, and death."

Other Sources: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, AP