Breast cancer survival among South Asian women in California (United States).

Background: Very little is known about cancer survival patterns among the growing South Asian community in the United States.

Methods: Breast cancer survival patterns were evaluated among South Asians using California Cancer Registry data from 1988 to 1998, and breast cancer survival among South Asians was compared to non-Hispanic Whites and other Asian subgroups. The analysis included all female, invasive, histologically confirmed breast cancer cases diagnosed from 1988 to 1998. The outcome of interest was death due to breast cancer. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate 5- and 10-year survival probabilities.

Results: South Asians were less likely to be diagnosed with early stage carcinomas relative to non-Hispanic Whites, Chinese and Japanese individuals. In unadjusted analyses, South Asians experienced poorer survival than non-Hispanic Whites at later survival times. The 5- and 10-year unadjusted survival probabilities for South Asians were 84% and 76%, respectively, compared to those for non-Hispanic Whites, which were 87% and 80%, respectively. There was no significant difference in survival between South Asians and non-Hispanic Whites after multivariate adjustment.

Conclusions: These data suggest the need for targeted efforts to improve early stage diagnosis among South Asian women. Further research into the factors that influence survival among South Asians is also needed.