Insurance, Income Don't Explain 'Race Gap' in Breast Cancer Care: The so-called racial gap in breast cancer care has long been known by researchers, with black and Hispanic women less likely to get recommended breast cancer treatments than white patients.
'Less well known is what the issue is -- is it race itself or something else contributing?' said Dr. Rachel Freedman, a medical oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Her team's new study suggests that financial factors such as economic and social class or access to insurance alone can't explain the 'gap': Even after accounting for those differences, racial disparities in breast cancer care still showed up.
The study, published online Oct. 11 in the journal Cancer, 'was unique because it included adult women of all ages, and included [those with] insurance,' Freedman said.
