Ethnic, racial and socioeconomic disparities in breast cancer survival in two Brazilian capitals between 1996 and 2012.

OBJECTIVE: To study the impact of socio-economic status and ethno-racial strata on excess mortality hazard and net survival of women with breast cancer in two Brazilian state capitals. METHOD: We conducted a survival analysis with individual data from population-based cancer registries including women with breast cancer diagnosed between 1996 and 2012 in Aracaju and Curitiba. The main outcomes were the excess mortality hazard (EMH) and net survival. The associations of age, year of diagnosis, disease stage, race/skin colour and socioeconomic status (SES) with the excess mortality hazard and net survival were analysed using multi-level spline regression models, modelled as cubic splines with knots at 1 and 5 years of follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 2045 women in Aracaju and 7872 in Curitiba were included in the analyses. The EMH was higher for women with lower SES and for black and brown women in both municipalities. The greatest difference in excess mortality was seen between the most deprived women and the most affluent women in Curitiba, hazard ratio (HR) 1.93 (95%CI 1.63-2.28). For race/skin colour, the greatest ratio was found in Curitiba (HR 1.35, 95%CI 1.09-1.66) for black women compared with white women. The most important socio-economic difference in net survival was seen in Aracaju. Age-standardised net survival at five years was 55.7% for the most deprived women and 67.2% for the most affluent. Net survival at eight years was 48.3% and 61.0%, respectively. Net survival in Curitiba was higher than in Aracaju in all SES groups." CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest the presence of contrasting breast cancer survival expectancy in Aracaju and Curitiba, highlighting regional inequalities in access to health care. Lower survival among brown and black women, and those in lower SES groups indicates that early detection, early diagnosis and timely access to treatment must be prioritized to reduce inequalities in outcome among Brazilian women.

Diferenciais regionais de mortalidade por câncer no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1979-1981 / Regional differentials in cancer mortality in a region of Brazil, 1979-1981

A partir do fato de que os neoplasmas malígnos foram a terceira causa de morte no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, no ano de 1980, apresentando taxa bruta igual a 89,8 por 100.000 habitantes, foi analisada a mortalidade por câncer segundo suas principais localizaçöes anatômicas, no período 1979-1981. Dividiu-se o Estado em três regiöes distintas: Capital, Cinturäo Metropolitano e Interior. Foram calculados coeficientes de mortalidade trienais, posteriormente padronizados pelo método direto utilizando-se, para tal, a populaçäo mundial. Para cumprir o objetivo de comparar diferentes regiöes geográficas foram calculadas razöes padronizadas de mortalidade. Observou-se que as principais localizaçöes anatômicas foram pulmäo, estômago, próstata, esôfago e fígado, nos homens; e mama, estômago, pulmäo, cérvix uterino e útero (näo especificado), nas mulheres. Encontrou-se que as maiores taxas para o total de tumores ocorreram na Capital e as menores no Interior, sendo que as maiores razöes padronizadas de mortalidade aquelas para mama (1,88), cólon (1,71) e pulmäo (1,70). A mortalidade por neoplasmas malígnos de esôfago e de fígado foi maior no Interior do que nas demais regiöes, em ambos os sexos. Conclui-se que existe comportamento distinto da mortalidade por câncer entre as diferentes regiöes, apontando, mais uma vez, na direçäo da determinaçäo ambiental de grande parte dos neoplasmas malígnos