Recent trends in race and ethnicity reporting in breast surgery journals

Race and ethnicity play an important role in breast cancer disparities; however, these variables are not consistently reported in research articles. Our study evaluates contemporary trends in racial and ethnic demographic reporting in clinical breast surgery research over a six-year period.

PubMed search engine was queried for breast surgery related clinical research articles published from January 2017 to June 2023. The four breast journals with the highest impact factors were evaluated: Annals of Surgical Oncology, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Clinical Breast Cancer, and The Breast Journal. Statistical analyses were conducted using chi-square, Fisher's exact tests, or Cochran-Armitage Trend Test.

Among 288 studies included, 181 (62.9%) reported any race/ethnicity. Studies were divided based on year of publication into three study periods: 2017-2018 (n = 108), 2019-2020 (n = 87), 2021-2023 (n = 93). Studies consistently reported White race across all time periods (100% vs. 96.4% vs. 100.0%) (p = 0.09), along with Black race (79.3% vs. 76.4% vs. 88.2%, p = 0.20), Asian race (50.0% vs. 45.5% vs. 60.3%, p = 0.24), Hispanic ethnicity (46.6% vs. 47.3 vs. 48.5%, p = 0.97), and "Other" race (55.2% vs. 61.8% vs. 66.2%, p = 0.45). Reporting of any race/ethnicity was found to have increased in recent years (53.7% vs. 63.2% vs. 73.1%, p < 0.01), only up to 73.1% in 2021-2023.

Race reporting in high-impact breast surgery journals has increased significantly from 2017 to 2023, although only reaching 73.1% in 2021-2023. Specific populations, including Hispanics and Asian-Americans, remain underrepresented. While increasing, race reporting remains limited in clinical breast research, underscoring the need for more consistent and comprehensive research standards.