These findings suggest that no single factor or group of factors can explain more than half of the race-stage differences noted in this study with respect to Black and White breast cancer patients.

This small difference in the time from symptom recognition to medical consultation is unlikely to account for the large racial differences in survival rates and in stage of disease at the time of diagnosis.

Approximately 75% of the racial difference in survival was explained by the prognostic factors studied. Sociodemographic variables appeared to act largely through racial differences in stage at diagnosis, which may be amenable to change through improved access to and use of screening for black women.