Does socioeconomic status influence cancer prognosis in the Basque Country?

Our researcher Nerea González publishes a study confirming that socioeconomic inequalities do not influence mortality, relapses or readmissions.

Biosistemak recently published the scientific article “Relationship between deprivation index and adverse events in colorectal and breast cancer in the Basque Country” in Gaceta Sanitaria, which analyses whether the socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood where a person lives affects their cancer prognosis.

Nerea González-Hernández, PhD in Psychology and researcher in the Institute’s Chronic Disease Health Services group, is the lead author, together with María José Legarreta, Urko Aguirre, Susana García-Gutiérrez, Eduardo Millán, Nere Larrea and José M. Quintana, the group’s principal investigator.

Equity in the healthcare system

The study followed 2,549 people with colorectal cancer (operated on in eight Osakidetza hospitals between 2010 and 2012) and 1,090 women with breast cancer (diagnosed in six hospitals between 2013 and 2015). Their socioeconomic status was analysed by census areas in the Basque Country over a period of 2 and 5 years, measuring mortality, readmissions and cancer recurrence (when the tumour reappears after a period without disease).

Although initial analyses seemed to show differences in breast cancer, studies adjusted for age, tumour stage and other diseases conclude that the socioeconomic level of the area of residence does not influence mortality, readmissions or recurrences in either of the two cancers. This shows that the Basque healthcare system provided equal care to these patients, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the area where they lived.

What really matters are, among other things, advanced age, more aggressive tumours, other previous diseases and surgical complications, not the postcode of the patient’s home.

Article reference:

González-Hernández N, Legarreta MJ, Aguirre U, García-Gutiérrez S, Millán Ortuondo E, Larrea N, Quintana JM. Relationship between the deprivation index and adverse events in colorectal and breast cancer in the Basque Country. Gac Sanit. 2025 Dec 17;40:102549. Spanish. doi: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2025.102549.