Unraveling the Influence of Social, Economic, and Demographic Factors in Texas on Breast Cancer Survival.

Background: According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States. Affected people are financially challenged due to the high out-of-pocket cost of breast cancer treatment, as it is the most expensive treatment. Using a 16-year cohort study of breast cancer survival data in Texas, we investigate the factors that might explain why some breast cancer patients live longer than others.

Methods: Performing a survival analysis consisting of the log-rank test, a survival time regression, and Cox proportional hazards regression, we explore the breast cancer survivors' specific attributes to identify the main determinants of survival time.

Results: Analyses show that the factors: stage, grade, primary site of the cancer, number of cancers each patient has, histology of the cancer, age, race, and income are among the main variables that enlighten why some breast cancer survivors live much longer than others. For instance, compared to White non-Hispanics, Black non-Hispanics have a shorter length of survival with a hazard ratio of (1.282). The best prognostic for White non-Hispanics, Hispanics (all races), and Black non-Hispanics is a woman aged between 40 to 49 years old, diagnosed with localized stage and grade one with Axillary tail of breast as a primary site with only one cancer and with a household income of 75,000.00 and over.

Conclusion: Policymakers should promote early diagnosis and screening and better assist the older and the poor to improve the survival time for breast cancer patients.