Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Survival after Breast Cancer Diagnosis by Estrogen and Progesterone Receptor Status: A Pooled Analysis

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2021 Feb;30(2):351-363. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-20-1291. Epub 2020 Dec 18.

Abstract

Background: Limited studies have investigated racial/ethnic survival disparities for breast cancer defined by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status in a multiethnic population.

Methods: Using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, we assessed associations of race/ethnicity with ER/PR-specific breast cancer mortality in 10,366 California women diagnosed with breast cancer from 1993 to 2009. We evaluated joint associations of race/ethnicity, health care, sociodemographic, and lifestyle factors with mortality.

Results: Among women with ER/PR+ breast cancer, breast cancer-specific mortality was similar among Hispanic and Asian American women, but higher among African American women [HR, 1.31; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05-1.63] compared with non-Hispanic White (NHW) women. Breast cancer-specific mortality was modified by surgery type, hospital type, education, neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES), smoking history, and alcohol consumption. Among African American women, breast cancer-specific mortality was higher among those treated at nonaccredited hospitals (HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.21-2.04) and those from lower SES neighborhoods (HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.16-1.88) compared with NHW women without these characteristics. Breast cancer-specific mortality was higher among African American women with at least some college education (HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.11-1.82) compared with NHW women with similar education. For ER-/PR- disease, breast cancer-specific mortality did not differ by race/ethnicity and associations of race/ethnicity with breast cancer-specific mortality varied only by neighborhood SES among African American women.

Conclusions: Racial/ethnic survival disparities are more striking for ER/PR+ than ER-/PR- breast cancer. Social determinants and lifestyle factors may explain some of the survival disparities for ER/PR+ breast cancer.

Impact: Addressing these factors may help reduce the higher mortality of African American women with ER/PR+ breast cancer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Breast Neoplasms / ethnology*
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Breast Neoplasms / mortality*
  • California / epidemiology
  • Cancer Survivors / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Receptors, Estrogen / metabolism*
  • Receptors, Progesterone / metabolism*
  • Registries
  • Survival Analysis

Substances

  • Receptors, Estrogen
  • Receptors, Progesterone