Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if race is a factor on overall survival when stage at diagnosis is compared. In this study, a total of 93 women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) were evaluated for survival outcomes after diagnosis between the year 2000 through 2010. Thirty-five patients (38%) were African American (AA), and 58 patients (62%) were Caucasian. Overall survival rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared between groups using the log-rank test. Student’s t-test was used to calculate differences in cancer recurrence and mortality rates by stage and race. Cox proportional hazards ratios were used to determine the association of patient and variables with clinical outcome. Of women diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer, the overall survival rates for AAs was 100% compared to Caucasians at 94% (95% CI, 0.003 to 19; P = 0.5). For women with stage 2 breast cancer, overall survival for AA women was 85% and for Caucasian women was 86% (HR = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.3 to 2.6; P = 0.73). For advanced stages (stage 3 and 4), survival for AA women were 78% and 40% for Caucasian women (HR = 0.6; 95% CI 0.2 to 1.98; P = 0.43). Rates of recurrence and mortality were not significantly different between AA and Caucasian TNBC patients. After controlling for patient variables, race was not significantly associated with OS (HR = 1.24; 95% CI, 0.32 to 5.08; P = 0.74) when comparing AA to Caucasian patients. Our study suggests that race does not have an effect on overall survival in African American and Caucasian women diagnosed with TNBC in Arkansas.
Highlights
Breast cancer is a major health problem that is expected to affect more than 230,000 women in the United States in 2011 (Brawley & Berger 2011)
Patient characteristics Between June 2000 and October 2010, 93 patients diagnosed with stage I-IV triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and treated at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, Arkansas were included in this report
TNBC is characterized by a lack of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER-2/neu receptors and an aggressive, basal-like phenotype that is most prevalent among AA women (Ray & Polit 2010)
Summary
Breast cancer is a major health problem that is expected to affect more than 230,000 women in the United States in 2011 (Brawley & Berger 2011). To our knowledge, there are no reports in the published literature that assess triple negative or other types of breast cancer trends in Arkansan women as it relates to ethnicity, treatment response, cancer recurrence and overall clinical outcome. This retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of race on survival outcomes among AA and Caucasian women diagnosed with TNBC from the year 2000 to 2010 in Arkansas
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