Context.-Breast cancer mortality is higher among African American women than among white women in the United States, but the reasons for the racial difference are not known. Objective.-To evaluate the influence of socioeconomic and cultural factors on the racial difference in breast cancer stage at diagnosis. Design.-Case-control study of patients diagnosed as having breast cancer at the University Medical Center of Eastern Carolina from 1985 through 1992. Setting.-The major health care facility for 2 rural counties in eastern North Carolina. Subjects.-Five hundred forty of 743 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer and 414 control women from the community matched by age, race, and area of residence. Main Outcome Measures.-Breast cancer stage at diagnosis. Results.-Of the 540 patients, 94 (17.4%) presented with TNM stage III or IV disease. The following demographic and socioeconomic factors were significant predictors of advanced stage: being African American (odds ratio [OR], 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9-4.7); having low income (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 2.1-6.5); never having been married (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.4-5.9); having no private health insurance (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.6-4.0); delaying seeing a physician because of money (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1-2.5); or lacking transportation (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.2-3.6). Univariate analysis also revealed a large number of cultural beliefs to be significant predictors. Examples include the following beliefs: air causes a cancer to spread (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.8-4.3); the devil can cause a person to get cancer (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2-3.5); women who have breast surgery are no longer attractive to men (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1-3.5); and chiropractic is an effective treatment for breast cancer (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.4-4.4). When the demographic and socioeconomic variables were included in a multivariate logistic regression model, the OR for late stage among African Americans decreased to 1.8 (95% CI, 1.1-3.2) compared with 3.0 (95% CI, 1.9-4.7) for race alone. However, when the belief measures were included with the demographic and socioeconomic variables, the OR for late stage among African Americans decreased further to 1.2 (95% CI, 0.6-2.5). Conclusions.-Socioeconomic factors alone were not sufficient to explain the dramatic effect of race on breast cancer stage; however, socioeconomic variables in conjunction with cultural beliefs and attitudes could largely account for the observed effect.

Increased financial burden asa result of cancer care costs is the strongest independent predictor of poor quality of life among cancer survivors.

Programmed death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune regulatory molecule that limits antitumor immune activity. Targeting of PD-L1 and other immune checkpoint proteins has shown therapeutic activity in various tumor types. The expression of PD-L1 and its correlation with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer has not been studied extensively. Our goal was to assess PD-L1 expression in a cohort of breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Pre-treatment biopsies from 105 breast cancer patients from Yale New Haven Hospital that subsequently received neoadjuvant chemotherapy were assessed for PD-L1 protein expression by automated quantitative analysis (AQUA) with a rabbit monoclonal antibody (E1L3N) to the cytoplasmic domain of PD-L1. Additionally, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) were assessed on H&E slides.PD-L1 expression was observed in 30% of patients and it was positively associated with hormone-receptor negative and triple-negative status and high levels of TILs. Both TILs and PD-L1 measured in the epithelium or stroma predicted pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in univariate and multivariate analysis. However, since they are strongly associated, TILs and PD-L1 cannot both be included in a significant multivariate model.PD-L1 expression is prevalent in breast cancer, particularly hormone-receptor negative and triple-negative patients, indicating a subset of patients that may benefit from immune therapy. Furthermore, PD-L1 and TILs correlate with pCR and high PD-L1 predicts pCR in multivariate analysis.

BACKGROUND Routine resection of cavity shave margins (additional tissue circumferentially around the cavity left by partial mastectomy) may reduce the rates of positive margins (margins positive for tumor) and reexcision among patients undergoing partial mastectomy for breast cancer. METHODS In this randomized, controlled trial, we assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, 235 patients with breast cancer of stage 0 to III who were undergoing partial mastectomy, with or without resection of selective margins, to have further cavity shave margins resected (shave group) or not to have further cavity shave margins resected (no-shave group). Randomization occurred intraoperatively after surgeons had completed standard partial mastectomy. Positive margins were defined as tumor touching the edge of the specimen that was removed in the case of invasive cancer and tumor that was within 1 mm of the edge of the specimen removed in the case of ductal carcinoma in situ. The rate of positive margins was the primary outcome measure; secondary outcome measures included cosmesis and the volume of tissue resected. RESULTS The median age of the patients was 61 years (range, 33 to 94). On final pathological testing, 54 patients (23%) had invasive cancer, 45 (19%) had ductal carcinoma in situ, and 125 (53%) had both; 11 patients had no further disease. The median size of the tumor in the greatest diameter was 1.1 cm (range, 0 to 6.5) in patients with invasive carcinoma and 1.0 cm (range, 0 to 9.3) in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ. Groups were well matched at baseline with respect to demographic and clinicopathological characteristics. The rate of positive margins after partial mastectomy (before randomization) was similar in the shave group and the no-shave group (36% and 34%, respectively; P= 0.69). After randomization, patients in the shave group had a significantly lower rate of positive margins than did those in the no-shave group (19% vs. 34%, P= 0.01), as well as a lower rate of second surgery for margin clearance (10% vs. 21%, P= 0.02). There was no significant difference in complications between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Cavity shaving halved the rates of positive margins and reexcision among patients with partial mastectomy. (Funded by the Yale Cancer Center; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01452399.)