“The survival data on 515 white and 388 black female cancer patients seen at Medical College of Virginia between 1968 and 1977 were analyzed to study the effect of age, stage and race on survival prognosis…. This suggests that the observed difference in breast cancer survival between blacks and whites is, to a large extent, due to the difference between the two races with respect to the distribution of socio-economic status.”

“According to our analysis, socio-economic status has significant association with breast cancer survival. Furthermore, if blacks and whites had similar distribution with respect to socio-economic status, there would not be a significant difference in survival between the two races. In other words, it appears that, as best as a correlational relationship can, socio-economic status ‘explains’ the racial differences in survival.”