Although breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, many breast cancer patients have poor knowledge about their condition according to a new study. 

A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School surveyed 500 women about the grade, stage and receptor status (the cancer subtype) of their own breast cancer. 

The survey showed that 32-82 percent of breast cancer patients knew each of the tumor characteristics, although only 20-58 percent of them could actually specify them correctly, reported Medical News Today.

Race also appeared to have a role in patient knowledge of the cancer.

In the survey more white women were more likely to understand he features of their cancers than black or Hispanic women. This statistic still held true when the researchers corrected for potential influencing factors including health literacy and socioeconomic status.

"[There's a] critical need for improved patient education and provider awareness of this issue," Rachel Freedman, a physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, told Medical News Today. "Improving patients' understanding about why a particular treatment is important for her individual situation may lead to more informed decisions and better adherence to treatment." 

Improving the knowledge women have of their breast cancer is important because it will help patients understand the reasons behind a particular personalized therapy and increase trust, confidence and satisfaction with the professionals providing her care and treatment, the researchers told Medical News Today. 

In 2011, the most recent year that numbers are available, 220,097 women and 2,078 men in the U.S. were diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The study was published in the journal Cancer.