Ethnic disparities in adherence to breast cancer survivorship care.

122 Background: Two major components of breast cancer survivorship care include surveillance with mammograms and clinic visits after completion of definitive treatment. Identifying disparities in adherence to survivorship care is critical for improving the care delivery and outcomes of patients. Methods: We evaluated adherence to survivorship care among 4,212 racially/ethnically diverse Texan residents who underwent surgery for stage I-III breast cancer at the MD Anderson Cancer Center between January, 1997 and December, 2006 and completed one year of survivorship care. We used generalized estimating equations (GEE) method to evaluate race/ethnicity differences in missed mammograms and clinic visits up to 4 years of survivorship care. Results: The mean age of the cohort was 53 years (range 22-91); 72% white, 11% black, 11% Hispanic and 5% other race/ethnicity. Over four years, 36% of patients missed an annual mammogram and 21% of patients did not have a minimum of 1 clinic visit per year. For the entire s...