Effect of race on long-term survival of breast cancer patients: Transinstitutional analysis from an inner city hospital and university medical center

Black women have the highest mortality for breast cancer. Our hypothesis is that racial disparities in breast cancer survival persist after controlling for stage of disease and treatment at both a city hospital as well as at a university hospital. Data from tumor registries of breast cancer patients at a city hospital and a university center were analyzed for overall and disease-specific survival, controlling for stage and treatment. Black patients presented with more advanced stages and had significantly worse survival compared with whites. After controlling for stage of disease and treatment, a difference in survival persisted for stage II patients, with blacks doing worse than whites at both institutions. Although there were socioeconomic differences, race was an independent prognostic factor, with black patients having the worse prognosis. The lower survival of black women with breast cancer is only partially explained by their advanced stage at diagnosis. Black women with potentially curable stage II cancer had a lower survival that is not explained by the variables measured.