MONDAY, Jan. 13, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- There are wide variations in breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and survival among American women who come from different ethnic and racial backgrounds.
So claims a study in today's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle examined data from about 125,000 women from all the major racial/ethnic populations and subpopulations in the United States.
The study found women of Japanese descent were 30 percent less likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer while women of Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian-Pakistani, Mexican, South and Central American and Puerto Rican descent were 20 percent to 260 percent more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer compared to non-Hispanic white women.
Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics were all more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced tumors than non-Hispanic whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders.
In the area of treatment, Mexican and Puerto Rican women were more likely than non-Hispanic white women to be given inappropriate treatment for breast cancer. The study found that Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese women were all more likely to be given appropriate breast cancer treatment.
Black women were 40 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white women to receive initial breast cancer treatment that was below national standards.
In terms of breast cancer survival, the study found Japanese and Chinese women had higher survival rates after having breast cancer. Hawaiian and Mexican women had survival rates 30 percent poorer than non-Hispanic white women.
The study found black, Native American and Hispanic women had a 10 percent to 70 percent greater risk of dying after a breast cancer diagnosis than non-Hispanic white women.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has information about breast cancer.
