“To determine whether cancer treatment varies for white and black women, we analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Black-White Cancer Survival Study (BWCSS) for patients diagnosed during 1985-1986….Older women and women with no usual source of care were significantly less likely to receive minimum expected therapy. Overall, 21% of black women did not receive minimum expected therapy compared to 15% of white women.”

“Studies have shown that more black women are diagnosed with later stage breast cancer than white women, and black women may get less aggressive or less appropriate treatment than whites.”

“We found that black patients with breast cancer are less likely to have a usual source of care and are less likely to receive minimum expected therapy than white women. Because race is strongly correlated with lower social class and lack of a usual provider, a cumulative process is set in motion including less screening, later stage of diagnosis and less likelihood of receiving the minimum expected therapy. We suspect that this cumulative process goes far toward explaining the shorter survival and higher mortality observed for black than white women….This relationship underlies our overall finding that 15% of white women and 21% of black women did not receive the minimum expected therapy.”