Health Care Disparities in Breast Cancer: The Economics of Access to Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment

The widespread acceptance of screening mammography for early detection, along with advances in treatment, have combined to decrease the overall mortality rate from breast cancer. However, significant disparities in health outcomes persist. Socioeconomic factors, including the ability to obtain private insurance, income, education, disparities in the quality of healthcare delivery, and race, as well as the ability to access and complete the most advanced breast cancer treatments, form part of a complex constellation of factors that contribute to disparity in breast cancer mortality. Here, we review some of the factors influencing this disparity and discuss some of the methods that have been suggested for closing the gap in breast cancer outcomes, using our perspective as breast imaging physicians serving both a safety-net hospital and tertiary healthcare system.