Key TakeawaysA new study has shown that an aggressive form of breast cancer is more deadly in Black women.The researchers found that Black women have a 28% increased risk of death from triple-negative breast cancer compared to white women.Doctors say that Black women with breast cancer may not have adequate access to treatment, which contributes to poor outcomes.
Key Takeaways
A new study has shown that an aggressive form of breast cancer is more deadly in Black women.The researchers found that Black women have a 28% increased risk of death from triple-negative breast cancer compared to white women.Doctors say that Black women with breast cancer may not have adequate access to treatment, which contributes to poor outcomes.
Research has repeatedly shown that Black women have lower breast cancer survival rates than white women.Now, a new study has found that a particularly aggressive form, triple-negative breast cancer, can be especially deadly for Black women.
An Overview of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
What Is Triple-Negative Breast Cancer?
Triple-negative breast cancer makes up about 10 to 15% of all breast cancers. The name refers to the fact that the cancer cellsdo not have receptorsfor the hormones estrogen or progesterone, and do not make much of a protein calledHER2. This means that the cells are negative for all three tests.
Triple-negative breast cancers are more common in women younger than age 40, Black women, and women with a BRCA1 mutation.
Triple-negative breast cancer is aggressive and does not respond to hormonal or othertargeted therapies. Compared to other forms of invasive breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer grows and spreads faster, has limited treatment options, and a worse prognosis.
What Is The Prognosis for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer?
What the Study Showed
The study, which was published inJAMA Oncology, found that Black women with triple-negative breast cancer have a 28% increased risk of death compared with White women. They also had lower rates of surgery and chemotherapy compared to women of European descent.
Who Was Included in the Study?
The population-based, retrospective cohort study specifically analyzed data from 23,213 patients who were diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2015. Of those participants, 25% were Black and nearly 75% were White.
What the Results Showed
During a 3.5 year follow-up, 3,276 patients (or 14.2%) died of breast cancer. When the researchers looked at the data more closely, they made several key findings:
Senior study author Ying Liu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a Siteman Cancer Center research member, tells Verywell that the researchers accounted for other factors—including patients' socioeconomic and demographic information and health insurance coverage, as well as their cancer’s features and treatment.
Even after these factors had been accounted for, Liu says that “the risk of death from breast cancer remained significantly higher in African-American women compared with White women.”
Addressing the Disparity
Liu’s study looked at the data and not necessarily at the factors that might be behind the figures.Kimberley Lee, MD, a medical oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center, tells Verywell that the findings indicate that “Black women are receiving inadequate treatment compared to White women" and that she’s “not surprised” that they’ve had worse outcomes as a result.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Causes and Risk Factors
Equitable Treatment
One factor that likely affected the data is the disparities in cancer treatment. “The differences in treatment along racial lines include Black women beingless likely to receive surgery and being less likely to receive chemotherapycompared to their White counterparts,” says Lee. “These treatments are paramount to properly caring for women with breast cancer.”
The actual type of treatment that the women received also matters. Lee says that while the recent study showed that more Black women than White women are dying from breast cancer, “even when both groups received chemotherapy, we do not know what type of chemotherapy these women received.”
Living With Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Lee adds that “other studies have shown that Black women are more likely to get non-standard or inferior chemotherapy regimens for breast cancer." If that was partially what was happening with the latest research, Lee says that it “may also explain some of the racial differences seen inbreast cancer survival.”
More Inclusive Research
Liu says that more research is needed to analyze these cancers in Black women and how efficient their treatment is when they have triple-negative breast cancer. He adds that it’s also “important to better understand the roles of treatment details, lifestyles, co-morbid health conditions, and social factors in explaining the excess mortality in African American women.”
According to Lee, it’s crucial to make sure that Black women get the proper care for their cancer—whether it’s triple-negative oranother form. To get there, though, Black women need to be included in the research that could lead to better treatments.
How Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Is Treated
“We also need to improve the representation of Black women in our clinical trials,” says Lee. “Further research is needed to understand the biological drivers of breast cancer and further optimize treatments accordingly.”
What This Means For YouThe right form of treatment matters with triple-negative breast cancer, and cancers in general. If you’re diagnosed, try to find a doctor or medical center that specializes in your form of cancer to ensure you get the proper treatment.
What This Means For You
The right form of treatment matters with triple-negative breast cancer, and cancers in general. If you’re diagnosed, try to find a doctor or medical center that specializes in your form of cancer to ensure you get the proper treatment.
3 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Cancer Society.Cancer facts & figures for African Americans 2019-2020.American Cancer Society.Triple-negative breast cancer.Cho B, Han Y, Lian M, et al.Evaluation of racial/ethnic differences in treatment and mortality among women with triple-negative breast cancer.JAMA Oncol. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.1254
3 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Cancer Society.Cancer facts & figures for African Americans 2019-2020.American Cancer Society.Triple-negative breast cancer.Cho B, Han Y, Lian M, et al.Evaluation of racial/ethnic differences in treatment and mortality among women with triple-negative breast cancer.JAMA Oncol. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.1254
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American Cancer Society.Cancer facts & figures for African Americans 2019-2020.American Cancer Society.Triple-negative breast cancer.Cho B, Han Y, Lian M, et al.Evaluation of racial/ethnic differences in treatment and mortality among women with triple-negative breast cancer.JAMA Oncol. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.1254
American Cancer Society.Cancer facts & figures for African Americans 2019-2020.
American Cancer Society.Triple-negative breast cancer.
Cho B, Han Y, Lian M, et al.Evaluation of racial/ethnic differences in treatment and mortality among women with triple-negative breast cancer.JAMA Oncol. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.1254
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