Dr Llanos on Prediagnositic Allostatic Load and Breast Cancer Clinicopathology in Black Women

Adana A.M. Llanos, PhD, MPH, cancer and molecular epidemiologist, associate professor of epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, member, Cancer Population Science (CPS) Program, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, member, NIEHS Center for Environmental Health, adjunct associate professor, Rutgers School of Public Health, discusses the relationship between prediagnostic allostatic load and breast cancer clinicopathology in Black women.

Providing background for the study Llanos presented at the 2023 AACR Annual Meeting, she discussed research from a 2020 study led by the Women’s Circle of Health, evaluating the connection between prediagnositic allostatic load and poorly differentiated outcomes in Black women. Research showed that higher allostatic load scores were cross-sectionally associated with breast cancers in Black woman, whereas there was no relationship between allostatic load scores and pooroutcomes in White women, Llanos begins.

Moreover, given that this was a cross-sectional association, investigators were curious to further understand whether it is possible to utilize the use allostatic load as a biomarker of risk and poor prognosis, Llanos emphasizes. It is known that allostatic load is strongly related to social determinants of health, such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and structural determinants of health, such as racism, Llanos expands. Given these relations to allostatic load, understanding the contribution of the stressors from a person’s daily life and further understanding social determinants of health and social interactions could be beneficial, Llanos adds. Moreover, it could be beneficial to examine how the accumulation of these stressors may affect the overall risk of breast cancer, which will ultimately influence disease outcomes, this would be of benefit to patients, Llanos notes.

Overall, this research shows evidence that elevated allostatic load before diagnosis can be used as an indicator of unfavorable breast cancer clinicopathology and may be beneficial to use as a n important prognostic marker, Llanos concludes.