Most experts were not surprised by the results of the study, but stated that figuring out why the differences existed would be difficult.
"It is sometimes very difficult to determine whether disparities are due to race or other factors," said Moy. "But in my opinion, race is a very important factor to consider."
"It is probably multifactorial," said Dr. Herbert Smitherman Jr., assistant dean of community and urban health at the Wayne State School of Medicine in Detroit. "The choices that people make are clearly a composite expression of their social and cultural circumstances, their conditions of living and the conditions of their community."
Smitherman adds that one factor may be physicians' ability to communicate effectively with their patients.
"There has been some literature showing that physicians' perception of the patient may be affected by race," said Smitherman. "This includes perceptions of patients' ability to understand choices, a sense of affiliation with patients and the ability to engage patients."
"When we walk into a patient's room, it's not like there's pixie dust and we leave everything back at the door."
Kendra Schwartz, study co-author and professor of family medicine at Wayne State, said this possibility highlights the need for physicians to be more cognizant of their interactions with members of a different race.
"We really need to ask the patient explicitly — 'what have you been told? What are your feelings about the treatment options?'" she said. "There are often people who initially don't want chemotherapy because of side effects, but if they are educated about how therapies improve survival, things can change."
On the other side of the patient-doctor relationship, some worry that a history of distrust of the medical establishment among members of the black community may also be affecting patients' medical decision-making.
"There is some, perhaps appropriate, distrust of the medical community," said Smitherman. "It's been shaped from the Tuskegee study on down, and this is passed down through the generations," he added, referring to a notorious study in which black men were not informed of their diagnosis of syphilis, and in some cases, were denied treatment.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
