41,020 women aged 68 years or older and with a first time incident breast cancer diagnosed between 1994 and 1999 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The authors calculated racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer survival, adjusting for factors including demographic variables, mammographic screening interval prior to diagnosis, breast cancer characteristics at diagnosis, markers of biology, treatment and co-morbidity. Breast cancer specific mortality amongst women diagnosed with stage II or II breast cancer was significantly higher for African American women (HR 1.3) and significantly lower for Asian women (HR 0.63) in comparison to Caucasian women, whereas Hispanic women had non-significantly lower rates (HR 0.90) compared to Caucasian women. The author notes that that “although screening, biology and treatment do play a role, race/ethnicity appears to have an independent effect, particularly for African American women.”
