ASTRO: Breast Cancer Local Relapses Higher for Black Women
April 30th, 2007 Posted by: Dr. Cox
Meena Moran, M.D.
Yale University
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 — Black women with breast cancer are more likely to have a local relapse after a lumpectomy and radiation therapy than are white women, a researcher said here.
The difference in local relapse rates is large enough that oncologists need to discuss the issue with patients, but not so large that it should be a bar to breast-conserving surgery for black women, said Meena Moran, M.D., of Yale, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology meeting. Action Points
Explain to interested patients that this study suggests that black women have more aggressive breast cancers than do white women and are at higher risk for a local relapse.
This study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
After 10 years, she said, 17% of black women treated at Yale had a local relapse, compared with 13% of white women — a difference that was statistically significant at P=0.045.
“The magnitude of increase in risk is relatively small,” Dr. Moran said, “so that conservative therapy remains a reasonable option.”
She added that close monitoring and careful follow-up is important for black women who get such therapy.
The finding comes from a cohort of 2,382 women treated with radiation and conservative surgery at Yale between 1975 and 2003, with black women making up 9% of the study population.
Dr. Moran said the study showed that treatment was appropriate for pathologic status and did not differ significantly by race. And black women appeared to have similar access to care, she added.
But the study found other significant differences between black and white women:
Black women tended to have cancers with a higher tumor stage. For instance, 32% of black women had a T2 tumor at diagnosis, compared to 18% of whites, which was significant at P
Primary source: International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics
Source reference:
Moran MS, et al “Differences between African American (AA) and Caucasian (C) Patients Treated With Conservative Surgery and Radiation Therapy (CS+RT) for Early Stage Breast Cancer.”Int J Rad Onc 2007; 69(3) Supplement S: S4 - S5.
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