People from minority ethnic backgrounds in England are up to a third less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer via routine screening, and are more likely to be diagnosed in an emergency setting, analysis has found.

The research, carried out by academics at the University of Surrey and funded by the charity Breast Cancer Now, involved analysis of 86,564 adults diagnosed with the disease between 2009 and 2019, from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and the Cancer Registration Tumour and Treatment datasets.

The analysis found that people from Black, Asian and mixed backgrounds, alongside people from deprived backgrounds, were up to 33% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer via screening, while these groups were also up to 31% more likely to be diagnosed via urgent suspected cancer referral, and up to 37% more likely to be diagnosed via emergency presentation.

Manveet Basra, the associate director of public health, inclusion and awareness at Breast Cancer Now, said the analysis revealed…