The severity of breast cancer at diagnosis: a comparison of age and extent of disease in black and white women.

A comparison was made of the incidence rates of localized, regional, and remote breast cancer between Black and White women by age at diagnosis. The analysis is based on 17,361 cases of breast cancer, newly diagnosed between 1973 and 1982, in Black and White female residents of the Detroit metropolitan area. Cases with breast cancer classified as local, regional, or remote were drawn from the Metropolitan Detroit Cancer Surveillance System of the Division of Epidemiology at the Michigan Cancer Foundation, a participant in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute. The findings indicate that older women, particularly Black women, are at elevated risk for being diagnosed with the most advanced form of breast cancer.