Black women with possible endometrial cancer were more likely than White women to experience testing delays or to not receive recommended tests at all, in a study of more than 44 million Medicaid patients across the United States. Early diagnosis of uterine cancer is known to improve a patient’s chances for survival.
In the study, researchers included adult patients who had reported abnormal uterine bleeding to their health care providers and later received a diagnosis of uterine cancer.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends several procedures to evaluate the cause of abnormal uterine bleeding. In the new study, researchers found that more than twice as many Black patients than White patients did not receive any of these procedures.
Further, of the patients who did receive procedures, Black patients were more likely than White patients to experience a delay of more than two months in receiving their first diagnostic procedure following their report of abnormal uterine bleeding. Ultimately, Black patients were more likely than White patients to experience a delay in receiving their cancer diagnosis.
“Overall, we found a pretty consistent difference in the quality of care received by Black and white patients,” said the lead researcher Xiao Xu, M.D.(above) of the Yale School of Medicine.
- See “Black patients wait longer for uterine cancer testing, diagnosis” by Mallory Locklear on the Tale University News website (February 15, 2023)
- See the abstract of the scientific paper “Racial Disparities in Diagnostic Evaluation of Uterine Cancer among Medicaid Beneficiaries” by Xiao Xu et al.
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