SURVIVAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BLACK-AND-WHITE WOMEN WITH BREAST-CANCER

Several reports have indicated that black women with breast cancer hav e a poorer prognosis than white women. To investigate this phenomenon and to identify some of the underlying reasons, 172 patients with infi ltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast, who were managed similarly, w ere studied. Survival analysis comparing the two populations with brea st cancer revealed that white women had significantly longer overall s urvival (OS), P = 0.015 by Wilcoxon and 0.019 by log-rank, and borderl ine significantly longer disease-free survival (DFS), P = 0.04 by Wilc oxon and 0.07 by log-rank. While there was no significant difference i n OS and DFS between the two groups with negative nodes, significantly poorer DFS and OS was noted in black patients with one to three posit ive lymph nodes compared to white patients, P = 0.008. The white patie nts had a higher incidence of hormone receptor-positive tumors, especi ally progesterone receptor (P = 0.0016). However, survival analysis fa iled to show any difference between the black and the white population s based on hormonal receptors. Such findings suggested that further in vestigation of other factor(s) is warranted. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.