Prospective cohort study of racial and ethnic disparaties in persistent chemotherapy-induced alopecia among women with breast cancer

Persistent chemotherapy-induced alopecia (PCIA) is a distressing adverse effect that can have lasting psychosocial consequences. A prospective cohort study at two tertiary cancer centers in the US (NYU Langone, New York) and South-Korea (Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul) investigated racial and ethnic differences in PCIA among adult women with stage I-III breast cancer. PCIA was defined as hair thickness or density at 12 months after completion of chemotherapy that fell moren than 2 SDs below the level measured before chemotherapy. In this study of 304 women, PCIA incidence at 12 month after chemotherapy was highest among Asian women (42%), followed by non-Hispanic White (22%), Black (19%), and Hispanic or Latino (5%) women. PCIA-related distress increased from baseline to 12 months among Asian women, whereas it remained stable or decreased in other groups. Racial and ethnic differences based on hair structure, genetic variants, and sociocultural context were observed. The authors conclude that the findings of this study support the need for personalized risk communication and culturally sensitive supportive care to address long-term toxicities of chemotherapy.