Women who undergo a mastectomy can benefit from immediate breast reconstruction, but not all women get the procedure done.
Now a new study finds economic status may explain why.
Researchers studied over 18,000 patients who had a mastectomy between 1995 and 2004.
Women who had high household incomes, had gone to college, and lived in bigger cities were most likely to undergo immediate breast reconstruction.
African American women were 47 percent less likely to have immediate surgery.