M.D. Anderson Researchers Find Racial Disparities in Radiation Therapy Rates for Early Stage Breast Cancer

In the largest study of its kind, black women were less likely to receive radiation therapy after a lumpectomy, considered standard care, than white women, according to a study published Dec. 14, 2009, in Cancer.

Grace Li Smith, M.D., Ph.D., et al reviewed the Medicare records of more than 37,000 patients with early stage breast cancer diagnosed in 2003 and found that an average of 74 percent of the 34,024 white women and 65 percent of the 2,305 black women were treated with radiation therapy after a lumpectomy, according to an M.D. Anderson press release.

“The use of radiation after lumpectomy is considered to be the standard of care for women with invasive breast cancer, as clinical trials have demonstrated that it both reduces the chance of recurrence and improves the chance of survival,” said Thomas Buchholz, M.D., professor in the radiation oncology department and the study’s senior author.

Buchholz noted that the discrepancy in the standard treatment was consistent when they looked at patients younger than 70, which could rule out comorbidities that would prevent prescribing radiation therapy.

The magnitude of disparity regionally was an unexpected research finding, said Smith. In the Pacific West, the rates were 72 percent (whites) versus 55 percent (blacks); 72 percent versus 57 percent in East South Central; and 70 percent versus 58 percent in the Northeast. However, they found virtually no discrepancy in treatment rates in the Mountain West and North Central Midwest.

“Until further research is conduced, we may only speculate about the underlying reasons why black and white women are not received radiation at the same rate,” said Smith. “As a medical community, we need to identify and eliminate any obstacle prohibiting all women from receiving necessary care for their breast cancer.”