Racial disparities in breast cancer mortality in a multiethnic cohort in the Southeast

Abstract

Background Although much has been done to examine those factors associated with higher mortality among African American women, there is a paucity of literature which examines disparities among rural African Americans in South Carolina. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the association of race and mortality among BrCA patients in a large cohort residing in South Carolina for which treatment regimens are standardized for all patients. Methods Subjects included 1209 women diagnosed with BrCA between 2000–2002 at a large, local hospital containing a comprehensive breast center. Kaplan Meier survival curves were calculated to determine survival rates among AA and EA women, stratified by disease stage or other prognostic characteristics. Adjusting for various characteristics, Cox multivariable survival models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) Results The 5-year overall all-cause mortality survival proportion was ~78% for AA women and ~89% for EA women, p<0.01. In analyses of sub-populations of women with identical disease characteristics, AA women had significantly higher mortality than EA women for the same type of breast cancer disease. In multivariable models, AA women had significantly higher mortality than EA women for both BrCA specific death (HR = 2.41; 1.21–4.79) and all-cause mortality (HR = 1.42; 1.06–1.89). Conclusion AA women residing in rural South Carolina had lower survival for breast cancer even after adjustment for disease-related prognostic characteristics. Impact These findings support health interventions among AA BrCA patients aimed at tertiary prevention strategies or further down-staging of disease at diagnosis.

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