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Between 1999 and 2020, breast cancer mortality declined across rural and urban populations, but by 2005, mortality among rural patients surpassed that of urban patients and after 2013 remained consistently higher, a disparity that is projected to widen further by 2035, according to research presented at the 19th AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, held Oct. 18–21 in Atlanta.

"Breast cancer is a major cause of cancer-related death in the United States, and patients living in rural areas face a particularly high risk of dying from the disease," said presenter Nickolas Stabellini, M.D., Ph.D., who is a postdoctoral scholar at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center.

"Rural patients may have greater difficulty obtaining screening, accessing timely diagnostic testing, seeing specialists or traveling repeatedly for treatment," he said. "These challenges may contribute to later-stage diagnosis, differences in treatment receipt and, ultimately, differences in breast cancer outcomes."

While the disparity in breast cancer mortality between rural and urban patients has been well documented, Stabellini noted that it remains unclear how this disparity is evolving and which factors may be most influential. "If we want to address this disparity and improve outcomes, we need to understand where the trends are heading and which contributing factors are most important," he said.

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