WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) — African-American women have worse breast cancer survival rates than others regardless of whether they received radiation therapy, U.S. researchers said.

Steve Martinez, assistant professor of surgery at the University of California, Davis, Cancer Center, found in one study that Hispanic patients were 20 percent less likely to get radiation therapy than their white counterparts and African-American patients were about 24 percent less likely to receive radiation therapy.

However, in a second study, Martinez examined 10-year survival rates in patients from whites, blacks and Hispanics.

The study found white women who had radiation therapy had an 11 percent survival boost, while black patients had only a 3 percent difference in survival rates.

“Hispanic patients were not significantly different from white patients in overall survival rates, but black patients did worse,” Martinez said in a statement. “This survival disparity seen in black patients was unrelated to whether or not they received radiation therapy as part of their treatment.”

The findings were presented at the Association for Clinical Research Training and the Society for Clinical and Translational Science meeting in Washington.