Black Cancer Patients Experience Nearly Twice as Many Treatment Delays

An article published in the American Cancer Society (ACS) Journals analyzing treatment delays in breast cancer found that black breast cancer patients experience nearly twice as many treatment delays than non-Black cancer patients. The study focused on delayed treatment, as delayed treatment was associated with worse survival outcomes and poorer care quality.

Historically, the healthcare industry has systematically and systemically disadvantaged Black patients — among other minority groups — by contributing to delayed, inaccessible, or insufficient care. Researchers at ACS quantified how likely delays were for Black breast cancer patients.

The study collected data from 32,626 patients in North Carolina between 2004 and 2017. The data, pulled from the Cancer Information and Population Health resource, included patients over 18 with Stage I–III breast cancer who had surgery or chemotherapy as initial treatment. The researchers defined a delayed treatment as one occurring 60 days or more after diagnosis.

Approximately 19% of patients in the study were Black. After collecting data on treatment delays, investigators determined that Black patients had a 15% probability that they would experience a treatment delay, almost double the 8% probability for non-Black patients.

This data helps provide context to the research published by ACS in the Breast Cancer Statistics 2022, which noted that, despite having a lower incidence rate, Black patients with breast cancer were 40% more likely to die from breast cancer. Considering the probability of delayed treatment, which allows for cancer to spread at various rates, it is no surprise that Black patients have more unfavorable outcomes.

Additionally, researchers analyzed how geographical locations impacted the risk of treatment delay, noting that patients living in some higher-risk areas were also twice as likely to experience treatment delays compared to patients who lived in lower-risk areas. This discrepancy was similar among Black and non-Black patients.

“High priorities for future research include defining problem areas of delay and disparity in other cancer types, further exploration of region-level and local health system characteristics associated with treatment delay, and the development of targeted, effective, and sustainable interventions in high-risk regions and patient groups,” noted researchers in the study.