Survival Disparities in US Black Compared to White Women with Hormone Receptor Positive-HER2 Negative Breast Cancer

Leann A Lovejoy; Craig D Shriver; Svasti Haricharan; Rachel E Ellsworth

doi:10.3390/ijerph20042903

Survival Disparities in US Black Compared to White Women with Hormone Receptor Positive-HER2 Negative Breast Cancer

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 7;20(4):2903. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20042903.

Authors

Leann A Lovejoy¹, Craig D Shriver^{2

3}, Svasti Haricharan⁴, Rachel E Ellsworth^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Chan Soon-Shiong Institute of Molecular Medicine at Windber, Windber, PA 15963, USA.
² Murtha Cancer Center/Research Program, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD 20889, USA.
³ Department of Surgery, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20889, USA.
⁴ Cancer Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
⁵ Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.

Abstract

Black women in the US have significantly higher breast cancer mortality than White women. Within biomarker-defined tumor subtypes, disparate outcomes seem to be limited to women with hormone receptor positive and HER2 negative (HR+/HER2-) breast cancer, a subtype usually associated with favorable prognosis. In this review, we present data from an array of studies that demonstrate significantly higher mortality in Black compared to White women with HR+/HER2-breast cancer and contrast these data to studies from integrated healthcare systems that failed to find survival differences. Then, we describe factors, both biological and non-biological, that may contribute to disparate survival in Black women.

Keywords: Black; biological; breast cancer; disparity; hormone receptor positive/HER2 negative; treatment.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Biomarkers, Tumor
Black or African American
Breast Neoplasms* / mortality
Female
Health Status Disparities*
Humans
Receptor, ErbB-2
Survival Analysis
United States
White

Substances

Biomarkers, Tumor
Receptor, ErbB-2

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a cooperative agreement from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences HU0001-16-2-0004 through the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc.