Dr. Blanter on Racial Disparities in Development of Distant Metastases in Breast Cancer

Julia Blanter, MD, an internal medicine resident at Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses the risk of developing distant metastases after initial breast cancer diagnosis among Black vs White women.

The results of a study assessing racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes identified that 6.9% of Black women had distant metastases vs 1.2% of White women, Blanter says. When performing the multivariate analysis, investigators adjusted for age and disease stage and found that Black patients were still more likely to have distant metastases after diagnosis, at an odds ratio of 5.8. 

Investigators were able to conclude that Black patients were at a higher risk for developing metastases, regardless of a late-stage diagnosis, Blanter concludes.