Black women wait twice as long as white women for treatment following a definitive diagnosis of breast cancer, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the George Washington University Cancer Institute with support from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Lead researcher Heather Hoffman, Ph.D., and colleagues examined the effect of race and health insurance status on diagnostic and treatment delays over a five-year period, with initial screenings going back 12 years. They found that race affects the diagnosis and treatment of black women with breast cancer.
The study included 581 women with breast cancer who were examined between 1997 and 2009 at seven hospitals and clinics in Washington, DC. Diagnostic delay time was described as the number of days from abnormal screening to diagnosis, and treatment delay time was described as the number of days from diagnosis to treatment initiation.
The researchers found that after a definitive diagnosis of breast cancer, black women wait twice as long as white women for treatment to start. They also found that insured black women and uninsured white women waited more than twice as long to receive a definitive diagnosis than insured white women. Furthermore, although not having health insurance slowed the diagnosis of breast cancer in white women, having insurance did not speed the diagnosis in black women.
The study results suggest that increased outreach and education are crucial to improve diagnostic time, as well as providing women with help navigating the diagnostic process.
"Black women should be the focus of breast cancer screening outreach and follow-up because they experience greater delays in diagnosis and in treatment than white women, regardless of insurance status," according to Hoffman. "We need to determine what other barriers contribute to diagnosis and treatment delays in insured black women and all uninsured women."
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