Black Women Wait Longer for Breast Cancer Surgery

Black Women Wait Longer for Breast Cancer Surgery
THURSDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A woman's age and race caninfluence how quickly she receives surgery after a breast cancerdiagnosis, U.S. researchers report.
A team at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore alsofound that a lengthy delay in surgery for breast cancer affects overallsurvival.
Factors such as socioeconomic status and the cumulative effects of apatient's other illnesses likely contribute to breast cancer surgerydelays, according to preliminary findings of the study, which looked at1,477 breast cancer patients who had either a lumpectomy or a mastectomyat Johns Hopkins between 2000 and 2005.
The team found that the average interval from breast cancer diagnosisto surgery was six days longer for black American women than for whitewomen (34 days vs. 28 days). Women older than age 70 had to wait anaverage of 12 more days for surgery than women younger than 40. Thoseyounger women were treated within 21 days, compared with: 28 days forpatients ages 40 to 50; 31 days for women in their 50s; 29.5 days forpatients ages 60 to 70; and more than 33 days for women older than 70.
Overall, the average time from diagnosis to surgery was 29 days.
Women who had to wait more than 60 days between breast cancer diagnosisand treatment were 1.8 times more likely to die from any cause compared towomen who had surgery within 60 days of diagnosis, the study found.
"We think that timely treatment could make a difference in patientcare," Dr. Hae Seong Park, a research coordinator in the oncologydepartment at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at JohnsHopkins, said in a prepared statement.
The study also found the average length of time between diagnosis andsurgery varied year to year. It was 24 days in 2000-01, 34 days in2002-03, and about 30 days in 2004-05.
The stage of cancer at time of diagnosis did not seem to influence thelength of time a woman had to wait until surgery.
"Although this is one factor that one might expect a time differential,we did not observe much difference," Park said.
The researchers were especially concerned by a finding that almost 24percent of patients didn't receive adjuvant therapy, such as chemotherapyor hormone therapy, after they had their breast cancer surgery. Patientswho had surgery more than 60 days after their diagnosis seemed to be lesslikely to receive adjuvant therapy, which is known to improvesurvival.
"Most patients should have received such treatment, but it may be thatthe cancer registry data did not reflect all of this information," Parksaid.
The researchers also lacked information about patients' insurancestatus and other data that may help explain some of the time lags betweendiagnosis and surgery.
"We plan to review individual patient records and collect moreinformation to confirm what we observed and perhaps to think aboutinterventions to provide more timely and complete care," Park said.
The findings were expected to be presented Thursday at an AmericanAssociation for Cancer Research meeting in Philadelphia.
More information
Breastcancer.org has more about surgery for breast cancer.