ATLANTA, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Breast cancer patients who are older, don't have insurance, are less educated or are black are less likely to get a diagnostic test, a U.S. study says.

American Cancer Society researcher Dr. Michael Halpern says the test -- the axillary lymph node dissection -- involves having the lymph nodes near the breast cancer tumor removed and examined to determined the likelihood that cancer cells have spread through the body via the bloodstream. This information is an important part of guiding breast cancer treatment decisions, Halpern says.

The researchers reviewed records for 196,732 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer from 2003 to 2005 and found 11 percent of patients overall did not receive any axillary lymph node assessment. Compared to white patients, African-Americans are 10 percent less likely to receive axillary lymph node assessments and women who are uninsured are 24 percent less likely to be tested compared to those insured. Patients from zip codes with the lowest education levels and patients over the age of 62 were significantly less likely to receive the test.

An abstract of the study was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research in Atlanta.