Breast cancer treatment delays in a majority minority community: Is there a difference?

Abstract

83 Background: Recent studies based from large nationwide cancer databases have consistently shown that Hispanic women with breast cancer have delays in treatment compared to non-Hispanic whites. However, time to treatment has not been studied in a community where Hispanics are the majority population. We hypothesized that Hispanic women in greater San Antonio will have no significant treatment delays compared to Non-Hispanic whites in the same community. Methods: We conducted a retrospective, observational study in 362 female breast cancer patients treated at a NCI designated cancer center with a largely Hispanic population. Using Kaplan-Meier analyses and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models, we examined the relationship between race/ethnicity and treatment delays including: 1) time from mammogram to biopsy and 2) time from biopsy to treatment, adjusting for patient demographics and cancer characteristics. Results: In our study, the majority of patients were Hispanic (50.0%, n=181). Hispanic patients were more likely to be obese, have estrogen receptor positive and higher grade tumors than non-Hispanic Whites (p ≤ 0.05 for all). After adjusting for a comprehensive set of socio-demographic and cancer characteristics, we continued to find no significant differences between race/ethnicity and time from mammogram to biopsy or time from biopsy to treatment (Table). Conclusions: Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women with breast cancer treated at our NCI designated cancer center have similar times to treatment. These findings suggest that minority status, as opposed to racial status, is an important risk factor for delays in breast cancer care. Future research should be focused on barriers imposed on minority groups within their community regardless of race. [Table: see text]