Survival Differences in Chinese Versus White Women With Breast Cancer in the United States: A SEER-Based Analysis

The affect of race on breast cancer prognosis is not well understood. We compared crude and adjusted breast cancer survival rates of Chinese women versus White women in the United States.

We conducted a cohort study of Chinese and White women with breast cancer diagnosed between 2004 to 2015 in the SEER 18 registries database. We abstracted information on age at diagnosis, tumor size, grade, lymph node status, receptor status, surgical treatment, receipt of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and death. We compared crude breast cancer-specific mortality between the two ethnic groups. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) in a propensity-matched design using the Cox proportional hazards model. P < .05 was considered statistically significant.

There were 7,553 Chinese women (1.8%) and 414,618 White women (98.2%) with stage I-IV breast cancer in the SEER database. There were small differences in demographics, nodal burden, and clinical stage between Chinese and White women. Ten-year breast cancer-specific survival was 88.8% for Chinese women and 85.6% for White women (HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.80; P < .0001). In a propensity-matched analysis among women with stage I-IIIC breast cancer, the HR was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.62 to 0.81; P < .0001). Annual mortality rates in White women exceeded those in Chinese women for the first 9 years after diagnosis.

Chinese women in the United States have superior breast cancer-specific survival compared with White women. The reason for the observed difference is not clear. Differences in demographic and tumor features between Chinese and White women with breast cancer may contribute to the disparity, as may the possibility of intrinsic biologic differences.