title: Racial disparity in breast cancer survival: the impact of pre-treatment hematologic variables.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A survival disparity of black versus white breast cancer patients has been extensively documented but not adequately explained. Blacks and whites also have significant differences in hematologic traits including hemoglobin (HGB). However, a link between survival disparity and hematologic differences has not been reported. We aimed to explore the effect of pre-treatment hematologic variables on this survival disparity.
  
  
  METHODS
  We sequentially matched 443 black patients, using a minimum distance approach, to four different sets of 443 whites on demographics (age, year of diagnosis, smoking, and drinking status), tumor presentation (all demographic variables plus tumor stage, grade, and hormone receptor status), treatment (all presentation variables plus surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy), and presentation plus pre-treatment hematologic variables. Racial survival for each matched dataset was analyzed by Cox proportional hazards model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that white patients matched on demographic characteristics had more favorable survival than blacks [hazard ratio (HR) 0.57, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.42-0.77, p log-rank = 0.0002]. Presentation match diminished this disparity [HR 0.72 (0.54-0.95), p log-rank = 0.0199], which was not further reduced in treatment match [HR 0.73 (0.55-0.96), p log-rank = 0.0249]. However, the survival disparity was largely reduced when pre-treatment level of HGB or red blood cell distribution width was further matched in addition to presentation match [HR 0.83 (0.64-1.09), p log-rank = 0.1819 and HR 0.83 (0.64-1.09), p log-rank = 0.1760, respectively].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that in our patient population, differences in tumor presentation and certain pre-treatment hematologic traits, but not treatment, were associated with the survival disparity between black and white breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Population Science, Department of Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Civan
authors.forename: Yinzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cristofanilli
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hyslop
authors.forename: Juan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Palazzo
authors.forename: Ronald E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Bingshan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Kejin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jinliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Hushan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology