Dr. Simons on Racial Disparities Reported in Luminal Breast Cancer

Yael Simons, MD, a Hematology/Oncology fellow at the University of Illinois Cancer Center, discusses the racial disparities seen in African Americans patients with luminal breast cancer.

Currently, a lot of data suggest that African American patients experience worse breast cancer outcomes, according to Simons. Previously, these outcomes were attributed to later time of diagnosis, or higher rates of triple-negative disease, which tends to have a poor prognosis, Simons says. More recently, findings have shown that in hormone receptor–positive or luminal breast tumors, there is also a racial disparity, with worse outcomes in African American patients, Simons notes.

A recent study showed that with regard to luminal breast cancers, African American patients have a disease that is more aggressive biologically; they also tend to have worse outcomes with early-stage disease, Simons explains. As such, a study is underway to examine the molecular characterization of these tumors to see whether any insights could help explain these disparities, Simons concludes.