Dr. Albain Discusses Race-Based Breast Cancer Study Within TAILORx

Kathy S. Albain, MD, director, Breast Clinical Research Program, co-director, Breast Oncology Center, professor of medicine, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, discusses a race-based analysis within the pivotal TAILORx trial.

Results of the phase III trial demonstrated noninferiority for adjuvant endocrine therapy versus chemotherapy and endocrine therapy in patients with hormone receptor—positive, HER2-negative, node-negative, early-stage breast cancer at an average risk of recurrence. A planned analysis led by Albain and colleagues set out to determine if this endpoint held true across subsets defined by race and ethnic background.

Secondly, researchers were also hoping to determine if there were racial or ethnic disparities in patient outcomes. Albain says that prior studies have suggested that African-American patients tend to do worse than Caucasian patients in population-based cohorts where the treatment isn’t the same, as well as in individual clinical trials where the treatment is the same.

Research presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium indicated that African-American patients with early-stage breast cancer had worse outcomes than Caucasian patients following adjuvant therapy, despite having a similar risk of recurrence. The African-American patients had significantly worse invasive disease-free survival, overall survival, and relapse-free survival. Researchers observed a trend toward worse disease relapse-free interval as well.