Research sheds light on inequalities in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment

Professor Robert Kerrison and his team from the University of Surrey analysed data from over 80,000 adults diagnosed with breast cancer in England.

They found that some marginalised groups were less likely to have their cancer detected through screening and more likely to be diagnosed through urgent referrals or emergency presentations. The study also found that some groups waited longer for a diagnosis and longer to start treatment.

These findings give us more insight into inequalities across the breast cancer pathway and could help inform future strategies to improve breast cancer care.

We know that people from marginalised groups, including certain ethnic communities, are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and have worse outcomes.

Researchers suspected this may be due to differences in routes to diagnosis and how quickly people in these groups get diagnosed and treated.

Previous research in the UK has focused primarily on cancer inequalities linked to age, sex, ethnicity and deprivation. There’s been much less research focused on some other groups, like people with severe mental illness or learning disabilities.

Robert and his team analysed data from over 80,000 adults diagnosed in England between January 2009 and December 2018.

They found that people of Asian, Black, or Mixed ethnicity, those experiencing deprivation and those with severe mental illness were less likely to be diagnosed via screening. These groups were more likely to be diagnosed via urgent suspected cancer referral or emergency presentation.

Inequalities in routes to diagnosis were made worse by the overlap of ethnicity, deprivation and severe mental illness. People with 2 of these characteristics were even less likely to be diagnosed via screening, and more likely to be diagnosed via urgent referral or emergency presentation.

They also found that time to diagnosis was longer for people with a learning disability. And that people with a learning disability, people with severe mental illness and people of Black or Other ethnicity faced more delays in treatments.

This research helps us understand not only which groups are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer via screening, but also who might wait longer to get diagnosed or experience delays in treatment. By knowing what barriers people from marginalised groups face, we can begin to work towards eliminating them.