Ethnicity, deprivation and screening: survival from breast cancer among screening-eligible women in the West Midlands diagnosed from 1989 to 2011.

BACKGROUND

Social inequalities in breast cancer survival are smaller when the cancer is screen-detected. We examined survival from screen-detected and non screen-detected breast cancer by ethnicity and deprivation.

METHODS

Cancer registry data for 20 283 women aged 50-70 years, diagnosed between 1989-2011 and invited for screening, were linked with screening and ethnicity data. We examined Asian, Black and White groups, less deprived and middle/more deprived women. Net survival was estimated using ethnic- and deprivation-specific life tables. Estimates were corrected for lead-time bias and over-diagnosis.

RESULTS

Net survival varied by screening history. No significant differences in survival were found by ethnicity. Five-year net survival was 90.0% (95% CI, 89.3-90.8%) in less deprived groups and 86.7% (85.9-87.4%) among middle/more deprived women. Screening benefitted all ethnic and both deprivation groups. Whether screen-detected or not, more deprived women had significantly poorer outcomes: 5-year net survival was 78.0% (76.7-79.2%) for deprived women who were not screen-detected compared with 94.0% (93.1-95.1%) for less deprived women who were screen-detected.

CONCLUSIONS

The three ethnic groups differed little in their breast cancer survival. Although screening confers a survival benefit to all, there are still wide disparities in survival by deprivation. More needs to be done to determine what underlies these differences and tackle them.