Outcome for Patients with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Is Not Dependent on RaceEthnicity

Abstract EN

Introduction.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is biologically aggressive and is associated with a worse prognosis.

To understand the impact of race/ethnicity on outcome for patients with TNBC, confounding factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) need to be controlled.

We examined the impact of race/ethnicity on a cohort of patients of low SES who have TNBC.

Methods.

786 patients with Stage 0–III breast cancer were evaluated.

Of these, 202 patients had TNBC (26%).

Primary endpoints were cancer recurrence and death.

ZIP code-based income tract and institutional financial data were used to assess SES.

Data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, log-rank tests, Cox Proportional hazard regression, chi square test, and t-tests.

A P value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results.

Of the 468 African-Americans (60%) in the database, 138 had TNBC; 64 of 318 Caucasians had TNBC.

80% of patients had an annual income of ≤$20,000.

The 5-year overall survival was 77% for African-American women versus 72% for Caucasian women (P=0.95).

On multivariate analysis, race/ethnicity had an impact on disease-free survival (P=0.027) but not on overall survival (P=0.98).

Conclusion.

In a predominantly indigent population, race/ethnicity had no impact on overall survival for patients with triple negative breast cancer.