Blacks more likely to have surgery for breast cancer, throat cancer - chicagotribune.com: Blacks in the U.S. with throat cancer are more likely than whites to have surgery that leaves them unable to speak than to get gentler voice-preserving treatments, a new study finds.
Previous research has found a similar racial disparity in breast cancer treatment, with blacks more often having the entire breast removed instead of just the cancerous lumps.
It's unclear why the gap exists. But Dr. Allen Chen, who led the new study, said poverty, less education and deep-rooted historical biases could all be at work.
"There could be an underlying distrust among African Americans where they feel anything less than surgery might be considered quote-unquote experimental," Chen, a radiation oncologist at University of California, Davis, told Reuters Health.
