Does access to screening through health maintenance organization membership translate into improved breast cancer outcomes for African American patients?

Objective: To investigate breast cancer outcomes in a group of African American and white patients offered the same access to mammography screening in a health maintenance organization located in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Methods: We used medical chart reviews and retrospective tumor tissue studies to investigate disparities in the mode of diagnosis and breast cancer outcomes among African American and white patients in a health maintenance organization.

Results: African American women were more likely to have detected their breast cancers accidentally and to have breast tumors larger than 2 cm than were whites. Invasive breast cancers with both lymph node involvement and systemic metastases were more prevalent in African American than in white women.

Conclusion: These results suggest that even in health care settings that provide access to routine screening, African American women are more likely to have their breast cancers diagnosed accidentally and at more advanced stages than their white counterparts.