Treatments and outcomes differ widely among women of different races.

2003 FEB 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Important disparities in breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survival among American women of various racial and ethnic backgrounds are documented in a new study by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

These findings by Christopher Li, MD, PhD, and colleagues, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind to evaluate the relationship between race/ethnicity and breast cancer stage, treatment and survival. The study evaluated data from nearly 125,000 women representing all major racial/ethnic populations and subpopulations in the United States, the majority of which have only been tracked by national cancer registries since the late 1980s.

"Numerous studies have evaluated the relationship between race and ethnicity and breast cancer treatments and outcomes, but most have crudely divided the data into broad heterogeneous categories, such as Asians/Pacific Islanders and non-Hispanic whites. This study, in contrast, evaluated several subgroups of these populations and found important differences among them," said Li, an assistant member of Fred Hutchinson's public health sciences division.

"There is reason to believe that there would be differences in breast cancer outcomes based on diverse cultural practices, dietary habits and, possibly, genetics," he said, "but socioeconomic factors are likely to play the most important role."

Among Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanic whites, Li and colleagues uncovered significant differences in stage at diagnosis, treatment and outcome among women in various racial/ethnic subcategories, including Japanese, Filipino, Indian/Pakistani, Mexican and Puerto Rican. Japanese women fared best overall. For example:

* Stage of disease - Japanese women were 30% 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% to 260% more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer when compared to non-Hispanic white women.

* Treatment - While Mexican and Puerto Rican women were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to receive inappropriate treatment for breast cancer, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese women were all more likely to receive appropriate care.