The incidence of gastric adenocarcinoma is higher in Hispanics than in Whites in both El Paso County and the remaining portion of Texas. Hispanics have a higher grade of gastric adenocarcinoma. The prevalence of late stage at the time of diagnosis is higher in younger patients than in older patients.

Background The Texas/Chihuahua (US/Mexico) border is a medically underserved region with many reported barriers for health care access. Although Hispanic ethnicity is associated with health disparities for many different diseases, the population‐based estimates of incidence and survival for patients with blood cancer along the border are unknown. The authors hypothesized that Hispanic ethnicity and border proximity is associated with poor blood cancer outcomes. Methods Data from the Texas Cancer Registry (1995‐2016) were used to investigate the primary exposures of patient ethnicity (Hispanic vs non‐Hispanic) and geographic location (border vs non‐border). Other confounders and covariates included sex, age, year of diagnosis, rurality, insurance status, poverty indicators, and comorbidities. The Mantel‐Haenszel method and Cox regression analyses were used to determine adjusted effects of ethnicity and border proximity on the relative risk (RR) and survival of patients with different blood cancer types. Results Hispanic patients were diagnosed at a younger age than non‐Hispanic patients and presented with increased comorbidities. Whereas non‐Hispanics had a higher incidence of developing blood cancer compared with Hispanics overall, Hispanics demonstrated a higher incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (RR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.79‐2.08; P < .001) with worse outcomes. Hispanics from the Texas/Chihuahua border demonstrated a higher incidence of chronic myeloid leukemia (RR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.07‐1.51; P = .02) and acute myeloid leukemia (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.04‐1.33; P = .0009) compared with Hispanics living elsewhere in Texas. Conclusions Hispanic ethnicity and border proximity were associated with a poor presentation and an adverse prognosis despite the younger age of diagnosis. Future studies should explore differences in disease biology and treatment strategies that could drive these regional disparities.

Background/Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of neoadjuvant and chemotherapy (NACT) and adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) in Hispanic/Latino (H/L) women with TNBC. Patients and Methods: We reviewed the charts of patients with TNBC, stages I-III, treated at TTUHSC from 2006 to 2016. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were estimated and compared between the treatment groups. Kaplan-Meier curve and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were conducted to estimate unadjusted and adjusted effects of NACT compared to ACT. Results: A total of 104 patients with TNBC, 30 (29%) received NACT and 74 (71%) ACT. Women undergoing NACT were younger, with a mean age of 50.8 years. Of the 30 patients who received NACT, 12 (40%) had pathologically complete response (pCR). Women who achieved pCR had an excellent RFS (HR=0.5, p=0.001). Women with residual cancer after NACT had worse outcome compared to patients who received ACT (HR=1.7, p=0.005). Conclusion: pCR to NACT is a powerful surrogate for OS in H/L women with TNBC. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer. In 2019, the American Cancer Association estimated that there were 252,700 new cases of breast cancer in the United States and 41,000 deaths from the disease (1, 2). Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, biologically characterized by the expression of one or more steroid hormone receptors such as estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR) along with the oncogeneepidermal growth factor receptor ErbB2 (Her-2neu). Of those subtypes, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is biologically defined by the absence of expression of ER, PR, and Her-2neu receptors (3). It is a heterogenic subgroup of breast cancer that comprises approximately 15% of all types of breast cancer. TNBC is highly aggressive and has worse disease-specific outcomes than any other subtype of breast cancer (3, 4). One possible explanation is the absence of well-defined molecular targets such as ER, PR, or Her2-neu, which limits options for treating this subtype of breast cancer. Systemic chemotherapy has remained the only available option for these patients for almost two decades. Historically, NACT has been used to downstage unresectable breast cancer to allow for better locoregional control and to increase the chance for breast-conserving surgery. It has been recognized that NACT represents an excellent in vivo approach to directly test tumor sensitivity to chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the large National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) randomized clinical trial B-18 did not show any statistically significant difference in the overall survival (OS) between patients who underwent NACT and those who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) (5). There was, however, a trend in favor of NACT in women younger than 50 years of age. The major limitation of the B-18 trial was the lack of subgroup analysis by hormonal status. Furthermore, multiple published retrospective clinical studies comparing the efficacy...