AACR II: Study Finds Race-Based Survival Differences in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Posted: Friday, June 26, 2020
Hispanic and Asian women with triple-negative breast cancer seem to have a decreased mortality risk compared with their non-Hispanic white patients counterparts, according to a presentation at the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II (Abstract 1178/10). In addition, “after accounting for clinical characteristics, treatment, and factors related to access to care, there is little white-black difference in 5-year all-cause mortality,” reported Fei Wang, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, and colleagues.
From 2004 to 2014, a total of 82,653 non-Hispanic white (n = 53,908), non-Hispanic black (n = 17,350), Hispanic (n = 5,116), and Asian (n = 2,334) patients with triple-negative breast cancer were enrolled in the study. Patient data were collected from the National Cancer Database.
The investigators reported that non-Hispanic black (21.4%) and Hispanic (20.8%) patients were more likely to be diagnosed with stage III/IV breast cancer compared with non-Hispanic white (16.4%) and Asian (15.2%) patients (P < .001). In addition, after the investigators adjusted for age and clinical characteristics, non-Hispanic black patients had a 9% higher 5-year mortality than did non-Hispanic white patients (hazard ratio = 1.09). Hispanic and Asian patients had a 23% (hazard ratio 0.77) and 18% (hazard ratio = 0.82) lower 5-year mortality compared with non-Hispanic white patients.
Of note, the difference between non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white patients became nonsignificant when the data were adjusted for access-to-care–related factors. However, the disparities between Hispanic and Asian patients, when compared with non-Hispanic white patients, remained. Moreover, assessment of women older than age 50 with stage III breast cancer revealed an increased mortality risk for non-Hispanic black patients compared with non-Hispanic white and Asian patients.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
