Disparities in timely surgery among Asian American women with breast cancer.

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.