Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities Are More Pronounced in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Than Other Breast Cancers

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Ryan A. Denu, University of Wisconsin Madison; John M. Hampton, University of Wisconsin Madison; Adam Currey, Medical College of Wisconsin; Roger T. Anderson, University of Virginia School of Medicine; Rosemary D. Cress, UC Davis School of Medicine; Steven T. Fleming, University of Kentucky; Joseph Lipscomb, Emory University; Xiao-Cheng Wu, LSU Health Sciences Center School of Public Health; J. Frank Wilson, Medical College of Wisconsin; Amy Trentham-Dietz, University of Wisconsin Madison
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-01-01
• Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2017 Ryan A. Denu et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/7574946
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Cancer Epidemiology
• ISSN: 1687-8558
• Volume: 2017
• Start Page: 7574946
• End Page: 7574946
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was also supported in part by NIH Grant P30CA014520.; The data used for this publication were collected by the CDC National Program of Cancer Registries Patterns of Care Study for Female Breast and Prostate Cancers through cooperative agreements with the participating state cancer registries including Grant U01DP000261 to J. Frank Wilson.; Ryan A. Denu is supported by the University of Wisconsin Medical Scientist Training Program (T32GM008692) and the University of Wisconsin ICTR TL1 Training Program (supported under NIH Awards UL1TR000427 and TL1TR000429).
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, General; Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Oncology

Abstract

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare yet aggressive form of breast cancer. We examined differences in patient demographics and outcomes in IBC compared to locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and all other breast cancer patients from the Breast and Prostate Cancer Data Quality and Patterns of Care Study (POC-BP), containing information from cancer registries in seven states. Out of 7,624 cases of invasive carcinoma, IBC and LABC accounted for 2.2% (N=170) and 4.9% (N=375), respectively. IBC patients were more likely to have a higher number (P=0.03) and severity (P=0.01) of comorbidities than other breast cancer patients. Among IBC patients, a higher percentage of patients with metastatic disease versus nonmetastatic disease were black, on Medicaid, and from areas of higher poverty and more urban areas. Black and Hispanic IBC patients had worse overall and breast cancer-specific survival than white patients; moreover, IBC patients with Medicaid, patients from urban areas, and patients from areas of higher poverty and lower education had worse outcomes. These data highlight the effects of disparities in race and socioeconomic status on the incidence of IBC as well as IBC outcomes. Further work is needed to reveal the causes behind these disparities and methods to improve IBC outcomes.