African American patients with breast cancer have worse prognosis than white patients in certain subtypes and stages

Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2017 Dec;166(3):743-755. doi: 10.1007/s10549-017-4484-1. Epub 2017 Aug 30.

Abstract

Purpose: Racial disparity of breast cancer in each subtype and substage is not clear.

Methods: We reviewed 156,938 patients with breast cancer from 2010 to 2012 from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Breast cancer was subtyped by hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) status as HR+/HER2-, HR+/HER2+, HR-/HER2+, and HR-/HER2-.

Results: African American (AA) patients had worse overall survival (OS) and breast cancer cause-specific survival (BCSS) in HR+/HER2- stages III and IV breast cancer and HR-/HER2+ stage IV cancer; they had worse OS but not BCSS in HR+ /HER2- stage II cancer and HR-/HER2- stage II cancer.

Conclusion: AA patients with breast cancer had worse survival in certain subtype and stage, especially in ER+ breast cancer.

Keywords: African American; Breast cancer prognosis; HER2 breast cancer; Hormone receptor positive breast cancer; Matched stage and subtype; Racial disparity.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
  • Black or African American / genetics*
  • Breast Neoplasms / epidemiology*
  • Breast Neoplasms / genetics
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Disease-Free Survival
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Prognosis
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / genetics*
  • Receptors, Estrogen / genetics*
  • Receptors, Progesterone / genetics
  • White People / genetics

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Receptors, Estrogen
  • Receptors, Progesterone
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Receptor, ErbB-2