Category Archives: NEWS

Detection of a protein called p53 using a specific antibody test may be an improved biomarker for predicting worse survival in African-American women with breast cancer, according to a study at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The study revealed that compared to Basal Subtype, a well known marker of poor prognosis for breast cancer, only p53 status was able to independently predict significantly worse survival for African-American women.

African American women have lower breast cancer incidence rates compared to White women, but suffer survival disparity with the highest mortality rates Continue reading →

Dr. Keith Dookeran

New research presented by Dr. Keith A. Dookeran at the recent ASCO 2006 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, shows that abnormal levels of the tumor suppressor gene, p53, in breast cancer is more likely to predict survival in African-American than Hispanic or white women.

Dr. Dookeran found that for all races, p53 expression demonstrated similar trends of association and correlation with high grade, hormone receptor negative, aggressive type tumors. Survival between racial groups was not different according to p53 status, however within racial groups, abnormal p53 expression was only able to predict significantly worse survival in African-American women, and this association appeared to be independent of stage and age.

This is the first study of p53 as detected by immunohistochemistry to demonstrate a survival difference for a subset of AA women. This information is important since abnormal p53 tumor biology may be a factor which contributes to the survival disparity seen African-American women with breast cancer.

The reason for higher African American cancer death rates may be doctors’ failure to recommend appropriate chemotherapy and minorities’ ability to access expensive treatment. Or it could be a matter of genetics that predispose some people to hard-to treat tumors.

African Americans have a higher chance of developing cancer and dying than that of any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. But new research, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in April, suggests that both access to health care and a propensity to develop hard-to-treat tumors play a role in the diagnosis and mortality disparities. By Ariel Whitworth – Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 98, No. 10 – May 17, 2006

Read more at JNCI Cancer Spectrum (PDF).

hopkinsbreastcenter.org – ARTEMIS – May 02, 2006

The racial disparity in breast cancer prognosis and survival may have more to do with socioeconomic status, rather than biological factors, according to a study of women diagnosed and treated at a public hospital. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Though the population sample was relatively small, including 341 African-American and 94 white women, the results suggest that low economic standing contributes to similarly poor prognostic profiles for tumor grade and estrogen receptor status in both races, according to the researchers Continue reading →

At a time when blacks share a disproportionate share of the nation’s cancer burden, new research presented here suggests that poverty and genetics may be at least partly to blame.

“These studies dispel the myth that it’s all about race,” says Lucile L. Adams-Campbell, PhD, director of the Howard University Cancer Center in Washington. “Health disparities go beyond color and ethnicity.”

“African-American women are more commonly poor and uninsured, so some studies suggest socioeconomic status, not race, is associated with a poor prognostic profile,” says researcher Keith A. Dookeran, MBBS, of Stroger Hospital of Cook County in Illinois.

Continue reading →

Our abstract #3696 was included in American Association of Cancer Research 2006 news release on racial disparities in cancer. You can also find this article at Continue reading →