Race/ethnicity and socio-economic differences in breast cancer surgery outcomes

The purpose of this study is to evaluate racial and socio-economic differences in breast cancer surgery treatment, post-surgical complications, hospital length of stay and mortality among hospitalized breast cancer patients.

We examined the association between race/ethnicity and socio-economic status with treatment and outcomes after surgery among 71,156 women hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of breast cancer using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database from 2007 to 2011. Multivariable regression models were used to compute estimates, odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals adjusting for age, comorbidities, stage at diagnosis, insurance, and residential region.

Black women were more likely to receive breast conserving surgery but less likely to receive mastectomies compared with white women. They also experienced significantly longer hospital stays (β=0.31, 95% CI: 0.24, 0.39), post-surgical complications (OR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.04-1.42) and in-hospital mortality (OR=1.26, 95% CI: 1.07-1.50) compared with Whites, after adjusting for other factors including the number of comorbidities and treatment type.

Among patients hospitalized for breast cancer, there were racial differences observed in treatment and outcomes. Further studies are needed to fully characterize whether these differences are due to individual, provider level or hospital level factors, and to highlight areas for targeted approaches to eliminate these disparities.