Race and ethnicity play a role in the outcome of patients with Breast Cancer

Javaid et al report in a JAMA article the findings of an observational study of women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from 2004 to 2011, that were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 18 registries database (N = 452 215).   The patients belonged in 8 racial/ethnic groups, who had small-sized tumors of 2.0 cm or less with biological aggressiveness (triple-negative cancers, lymph node metastases, and distant metastases).

The odds ratio for being diagnosed at stage I compared with a later stage and the hazard ratio for death from stage I breast cancer by racial/ethnic group were determined.

Breast cancer stage at diagnosis and 7-year breast cancer–specific survival, adjusted for age at diagnosis, income, and estrogen receptor status was assessed.

Of 373 563 women with invasive breast cancer, 268 675 (71.9%) were non-Hispanic white; 34 928 (9.4%), Hispanic white; 38 751 (10.4%), black; 25 211 (6.7%), Asian; and 5998 (1.6%), other ethnicities. Mean follow-up time was 40.6 months (median, 38 months). Compared with non-Hispanic white women diagnosed with stage I breast cancer (50.8%), Japanese women (56.1%) were more likely to be diagnosed and black women (37.0%) were less likely to be diagnosed. Actuarial risk of death from stage I breast cancer at 7 years was higher among black women (6.2%) than non-Hispanic white women (3.0%), and lower among South Asian women (1.7%). Black women were more likely to die of breast cancer with small-sized tumors (9.0%) than non-Hispanic white women (4.6%); the difference remained after adjustment for income and estrogen receptor status.

Among US women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, the likelihood of diagnosis at an early stage, and survival after stage I diagnosis, varied by race and ethnicity.