Disparities in timely surgery among Asian American women with breast cancer

Yuan-Hsin Chen; Ya-Wen Chen; David C Chang; Tawakalitu O Oseni

doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.115928

Disparities in timely surgery among Asian American women with breast cancer

Am J Surg. 2025 Feb:240:115928. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.115928. Epub 2024 Aug 22.

Authors

Yuan-Hsin Chen¹, Ya-Wen Chen¹, David C Chang², Tawakalitu O Oseni³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA; Codman Center for Clinical Effectiveness in Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 165 Cambridge St, Suite 403, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
² Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA; Codman Center for Clinical Effectiveness in Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 165 Cambridge St, Suite 403, Boston, MA, 02114, USA. Electronic address: dchang8@mgh.harvard.edu.
³ Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit St, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.

PMID: 39237393
DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.115928

Abstract

Background: We investigated the likelihood of timely surgery for breast cancer patients among diverse Asian subgroups.

Methods: We analyzed the National Cancer Database from 2010 to 2019 and included White and Asian women diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer. Patients with multiple cancers, patients who received chemotherapy, and those diagnosed and treated at different hospitals were excluded. The primary outcome was timely surgery within 8 weeks of diagnosis. Race was the primary independent variable. Asian Americans were stratified by geography.

Results: A total of 716,701 women were analyzed, with 3.5% Asians. Delayed surgery was experienced by 13.2% of women. Adjusted analysis indicated no difference in receiving timely surgery between all Asians and Whites. However, Southeast Asians were less likely to undergo timely surgery compared to Whites (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67-0.84).

Conclusions: Variations among Asian ethnicities emphasize the need to explore treatment patterns to address disparities in breast cancer care.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Disaggregated Asian American subgroups; Surgical disparity; Timely surgery.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Asian* / statistics & numerical data
Breast Neoplasms* / ethnology
Breast Neoplasms* / surgery
Female
Healthcare Disparities* / ethnology
Healthcare Disparities* / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Mastectomy* / statistics & numerical data
Middle Aged
Time-to-Treatment* / statistics & numerical data
United States
White
White People / statistics & numerical data