Elderly black women with breast cancer who are on Medicare tend to be treated differently for their disease than white women, according to researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC.

Also, black women appear to be less likely to have breast conservation surgery with radiation than white women, according to the report published in the journal Cancer.

Researchers developed a study to evaluate the associations between race and breast cancer treatment. Data was obtained from 984 black and 849 white Medicare beneficiaries, 67 years or older, with early breast cancer.

Sixty-seven percent of women had a mastectomy and 33 percent had breast-conserving surgery. Black women were 36 percent more likely to have a mastectomy than white women. The odds of not having radiation were 48 percent higher for blacks than for whites when having breast-conserving surgery.

Radiation in conjunction with breast-conserving surgery is considered to be standard treatment. The odds of not having radiation in conjunction with breast-conserving surgery were significantly higher among blacks living greater distances from a cancer center or living in areas with high poverty levels, but these factors did not affect the use of radiation among whites.

Among those interviewed, blacks reported perceiving more ageism and racism in the healthcare system than whites.

"Older black women with localized breast carcinoma may have a different experience obtaining treatment than their white counterparts," concluded the researchers.

A study at the University of Iowa, also reported on in the journal Cancer, found similar results. In this study of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer who receive breast-conserving surgery, black women were significantly less likely to receive follow-up radiation therapy in every age group except in the older than 85 age group.

Whether treatment was equal to or below standard, survival for black women with early-stage breast cancer was significantly worse. However, when treatment was equal, the effects of racial differences on survival were significantly less compared with survival linked with sub par treatment.

Other sources: Cancer