Older women with breast cancer who live in United States territories are less likely than their peers in the continental U.S. to receive recommended care, a study suggests. Researchers mined data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services between 2008 and 2014 on women age 66 and older who were diagnosed with breast cancer and received surgical treatment. Overall, roughly 570 study subjects were residents of the U.S. territories and 259,000 lived in the continental U.S., according to the study published in Health Affairs. The study looked at whether women underwent needle biopsy (as opposed to only surgical biopsy), how much time passed between the initial breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and whether radiation therapy was prescribed in addition to breast-conserving surgery. The study found that breast cancer patients in the territories were 24 percent less likely to receive needle biopsy and 34 percent less likely to receive radiation treatment, compared to patients in the continental U.S.
Read more: