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Thrice as Troublesome Triple-negative breast cancer impacts African Americans’ chances of successful breast cancer treatment 
Women with African ancestry may find successful breast cancer treatment options more elusive than others, according to a new study. Research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, links African ancestry to triple-negative breast cancer, a type that has fewer treatment options. The study shows that among women with triple-negative breast cancer, 16 percent are white Americans, 26 percent are African Americans and 82 percent are African. Triple negative breast cancer garners its name from its clinically negative response to three specific markers that are used to determine treatment: the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor and HER-2/neu. “The most significant recent advances in breast cancer treatment have involved targeting these three receptors,” says study author Lisa A. Newman, professor of surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School and director of the university’s Breast Care Center. “But these treatments do not help women with triple-negative breast cancer. Outcome disparities are therefore likely to increase, because fewer African-American women are candidates for these newer treatments.” Of the breast cancer patients studied, 1,008 were white, 581 were African American, and 75 were Ghanaian. Not only were Ghanaian women more likely to test negative for each of the three markers, their diagnoses involved more advanced cancers with larger tumors and at younger ages than American women. Prior studies have shown that African-American women are actually less likely than white women to develop breast cancer, but those diagnosed are usually younger and more likely to die from the disease. Other studies have correlated hereditary breast cancer with racial-ethnic identity. “African ancestry might be associated with other links to hereditary predisposition for particular patterns of breast cancer,” Newman says. “We hope that by studying breast cancer in African and African-American women we can identify biomarkers that might be useful for assessing risk or treating triple-negative breast cancer.” |
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