Late stage diagnosis and other factors that influencethe increased mortality rate of of African American women in Nebraska: Analysis of Cancer Registry Data 1999-1008

Health disparities have gained considerable attention in the last two decades as evidenced by Healthy People 2000, 2010 and 2020. Contrary to popular belief, Nebraska's health disparities mirror national trends with the starkest disparities occuring in Omaha NE. We conducted the first study in Nebraska that investigated the extent of breast cancer burden among African American women, a population that is often ignored. In this study, we used Nebraska Cancer Registry data 1999-2008 to examine staging at diagnosis, time to treatment initiation and survival among African American women compared to Caucasian women. A Cox proportionalHazard Regression Analysis was used to show ratio of race, age. stage at diagnosis and socioeconomic status. During the 10 year study period, a total of 14,481 women in Nebraska were diagnosed with breast cancer, of which 376 were among African American women(3%). African American breast cancer patients were significantly younger than Caucasian counterparts and 40% of African American breast cancer patients were younger than 55 years of age compared to 30% among Caucasians. African American breast cancer patients were significantly more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage than caucasian patients. Even affter adjusting for staging and age, African American women had a significantly poorer survival compared to Caucasians. Mortality for African American women is 34.8% compared to 22.6% for Caucasians. This presentation will highlight the breast cancer health disparity issues in Nebraska and the partnerships and evidence-based programs implemented to reduce late-stage diagnosis and better treatment outcomes.