UCLA: Wealthier women who live in communities with the greatest income
divide between rich and poor had better access to a new genetic test
that can determine the most effective form of treatment for early-stage
breast cancer, according to a new study (link
is password-protected) by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research,
Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Aetna. The
study, published in the April issue of the journal Health Affairs, also
indicated that only a small minority of women with breast cancer
received the test at all.
“Our study shows that even among
women who have insurance, where they live and how income is distributed
in their community were closely linked to their chance of getting access
to an effective innovation in the early years of its diffusion,”
said Ninez Ponce, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and lead author of the study.
The Gene Expression Profiling test is an early example of a
“precision medicine” genomic test that estimates a patient’s risk of
having a recurrence of a disease. According to current medical evidence,
a woman with early-stage, estrogen-receptor–positive,
lymph-node–negative breast cancer with a low-risk GEP test score may not
benefit from adding chemotherapy to her treatment plan, while a woman
with a high-risk score would benefit and should consider including
chemotherapy in her treatment. More than 100,000 women are diagnosed
with this type of breast cancer every year.
The study is based on a survey of 1,847 women between the ages of 35
of 64 who were insured through an Aetna health plan and were newly
diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 and 2007. Of those, 235 (12.7
percent) had the GEP test.
The study found that the greater the gap between high-income
individuals and low-income individuals within a community, the larger
the gap in testing. In communities where there was greater equality in
income — whether poorer or wealthier — the adoption and use of the tests
was slower than in communities with unequal income levels.
“Income inequality is at an all-time high right now,” said Dr.
Jennifer Haas, a co-author of the study and associate professor at
Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “That it should
have a bearing on who gets an innovative test and who doesn’t could lead
to more social disparities in cancer care.”
The authors point to the need for more research to address the
socioeconomic and other barriers that may prevent women from accessing
GEP and other medical innovations.
The TRANSPERS Center for Translational and Policy Research on
Personalized Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, Harvard
Catalyst, the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, and the
National Research Service Award Primary Care Research Fellowship and
Aetna supported this study.