Jackson Free Press

...minority women with early-stage breast cancer had double the risk of white women of failing to receive radiation, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy following breast cancer surgery.

"We found that one in three black women and nearly one in four Hispanic women fail to receive the necessary adjuvant therapy," said Nina Bickell, associate professor of health policy and medicine at Mount Sinai and that study's lead author.

The likelihood of not getting proper follow-up treatment among whites was 16 percent, much lower than the 23 percent for Hispanics and 34 percent among blacks.

That study also controlled for clinical, demographic and treatment access factors, including the presence of other illnesses and whether or not a woman was covered by health insurance.

Researchers found that women from minority groups were indeed more likely to have other illnesses and had less insurance than white women, suggesting that these factors could influence a physician's decision to prescribe treatment and a patient's ability to actually receive treatment.

"Significant progress can be made toward reducing racial disparities in cancer death by eliminating the disparities in breast cancer treatment," Bickell said.

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