Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep;177(2):497-505.
doi: 10.1007/s10549-019-05310-z. Epub 2019 Jun 5.

Treatment and survival of Asian women diagnosed with breast cancer in New Zealand

Chunhuan Lao  1 , Ross Lawrenson  2 , Melissa Edwards  3 , Ian Campbell  3
Affiliations

Treatment and survival of Asian women diagnosed with breast cancer in New Zealand

Chunhuan Lao et al. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to examine the differences in characteristics, treatment and survival between Asian and European women diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer in New Zealand.

Methods: The studied population included European women and Asian women diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer between June 2000 and May 2013 identified from the combined Waikato and Auckland Breast Cancer Registers. Characteristics and treatment were compared between Asian and European women. Kaplan-Meier method was used to examine the survival difference. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of mortality.

Results: The studied cohort included 8608 European and 949 Asian women. Asian women were younger, had less comorbidities and were less likely to be obese than European women. Asian women were more likely to have grade 3, larger and HER2+ breast cancers. Asian women were more likely to receive mastectomy, less likely to have reconstruction after mastectomy, less likely to have chemotherapy, less likely to be treated with trastuzumab if HER2+, and had better adherence to endocrine therapy (adjusted odds ratio: 1.54; 95% CI 1.22-1.93). Asian women had better cancer-specific survival and all-cause survival than European women. The adjusted HR of cancer-specific mortality and all-cause mortality were 0.64 (95% CI 0.49-0.82) and 0.68 (95% CI 0.55-0.84), respectively.

Conclusions: Asian women are more likely to have high grade, larger and HER2+ breast cancers than European women. In spite of this, they had better breast cancer outcomes. Possible explanations include the differences in adherence to endocrine therapy, age, BMI and comorbidities.

Keywords: Adherence to endocrine therapy; Asian women; Breast cancer; Ethnic disparity; Survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A (2018) Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 68(6):394–424 - DOI
    1. Breast cancer. https://www.who.int/cancer/prevention/diagnosis-screening/breast-cancer/en/
    1. Gelber RP, McCarthy EP, Davis JW, Seto TB (2006) Ethnic disparities in breast cancer management among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Ann Surg Oncol 13(7):977–984 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Warner ET, Tamimi RM, Hughes ME, Ottesen RA, Wong Y-N, Edge SB, Theriault RL, Blayney DW, Niland JC, Winer EP et al (2015) Racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer survival: mediating effect of tumor characteristics and sociodemographic and treatment factors. J Clin Oncol 33(20):2254–2261 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Curtis E, Quale C, Haggstrom D, Smith-Bindman R (2008) Racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer survival: how much is explained by screening, tumor severity, biology, treatment, comorbidities, and demographics? Cancer 112(1):171–180 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources