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Do breast quadrants explain racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes?

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Abstract

Purpose

Tumors of the inner quadrants of the breast are associated with poorer survival than those of the upper-outer quadrant. It is unknown whether racial differences in breast cancer outcomes are modified by breast quadrant, in addition to comparisons among Asian subgroups.

Methods

Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we analyzed data among women diagnosed with non-metastatic invasive breast cancer between 1990 and 2014. We performed Cox proportional hazards regression models to assess the associations of race with breast cancer-specific survival and overall survival, stratified by breast quadrants. The models were adjusted for age, year of the diagnosis, tumor size, grade, histological type, tumor laterality, lymph node, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and treatments.

Results

Among 454,154 patients (73.0% White, 10.0% Black, 7.8% Asian/PI, and 9.2% Hispanic), 54.3% had tumors diagnosed in the upper-outer quadrant of the breast. Asian/PI women were more likely than White to have tumors diagnosed in the nipple/central portion of the breast and were less likely to have diagnosed in the upper-outer quadrant (P < 0.001), despite a similar distribution of breast quadrant between Black, Hispanic, and White women. Compared with White women, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios of breast cancer-specific mortality were 1.41 (95% CI 1.37–1.44) in Black women, 0.82 (95% CI 0.79–0.85) in Asian women, and 1.05 (95% CI 1.02–1.09) in Hispanic women. Among Asian subgroups, Japanese American women had a lower risk of breast cancer-specific mortality (HR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.62–0.74) compared with White women. Overall survival was similar to breast cancer-specific survival in each race group. The race-associated risks did not vary significantly by breast quadrants for breast cancer-specific mortality and all-cause mortality.

Conclusions

Differences in breast cancer survival by race could not be attributed to tumor locations. Understanding the cultural, biological, and lifestyle factors that vary between White, African American, and ethnic subgroups of Asian American women may help explain these survival differences.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the first author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

BCS:

Breast-conserving surgery

BCSM:

Breast cancer-specific mortality

BCSS:

Breast cancer-specific survival

CI:

Confidence interval

ER:

Estrogen receptor

HR:

Hazard ratio

NOS:

Not otherwise specified

OS:

Overall survival

PI:

Pacific Islander

PR:

Progesterone receptor

SEER:

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results

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Funding

Dr. Han was supported by foundations from Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Breast Cancer Research Foundation (award ID: BCRF-17-028). Dr. Colditz is supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Drs. Moore, Langston, Fuzzell, Khan, and Lewis were supported by the Washington University School of Medicine, Public Health Sciences Division Postdoctoral Training in Cancer Prevention and Control, and a training grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number T32CA190194. YL is supported by an American Cancer Society—Denim Days Research Scholar Grant (RSG-18-116-01-CPHPS) and the National Cancer Institute (R01CA215418). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8100, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA

    Yunan Han, Justin Xavier Moore, Marvin Langston, Lindsay Fuzzell, Saira Khan, Marquita W. Lewis, Graham A. Colditz & Ying Liu

  2. Department of Breast Surgery, First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China

    Yunan Han

  3. Division of Epidemiology, Department of Population Health Sciences, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA

    Justin Xavier Moore

  4. Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente, Northern California, Oakland, CA, 94612, USA

    Marvin Langston

  5. Department of Health Outcomes & Behavior, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA

    Lindsay Fuzzell

  6. Epidemiology Program, College of Health Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Saira Khan

  7. Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Graham A. Colditz & Ying Liu

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  1. Yunan Han
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Correspondence to Ying Liu.

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As this study is based on a publicly available database without identifying patient information, informed consent was not needed.

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Han, Y., Moore, J.X., Langston, M. et al. Do breast quadrants explain racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes?. Cancer Causes Control 30, 1171–1182 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-019-01222-x

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