Racial disparity in distant recurrence-free survival in patients with localized breast cancer

Black race is associated with worse outcomes in patients with breast cancer. Pooled analysis of 8 NSABP trials, including 9702 women, investigated racial disparities in distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) or adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) for localized breast cancer. The analysis found that black race was associated with significantly inferior DRFS in ER+ localized breast cancer, but not in ER- disease. In the NAC group, racial disparity was also observed in patients with residual ER+ breast cancer at surgery, but not in those who had pCR.