Advanced tumor genomic profiling may help improve treatment decisions and survival outcomes for Black breast cancer patients, according to new research published in npj Breast Cancer.
The study found that Black women in the U.S. face a 40% higher breast cancer mortality rate than white women, even though their incidence of the disease is 5% lower. Researchers said one reason for the gap may be that standard clinical biomarker testing can miss high-risk tumors, leading to under-treatment and poorer outcomes.
In the study, researchers analyzed early-stage breast cancer tumor samples from more than 1,000 women using commercially available genomic tools, including MammaPrint and BluePrint from Agendia. These tests classify tumors as Ultra Low, Low, High 1 or High 2 risk based on the likelihood of spreading within the body over the next 10 years, helping doctors determine whether chemotherapy is needed.
The findings showed that three-year recurrence-free survival was driven by genomic subtype, not race. Black women with low-risk tumors had excellent 10-year outcomes, with a 97.7% recurrence-free survival rate, the same as white women.
Patients with high-risk tumors were five to 10 times more likely to develop distant metastases than those with low-risk tumors, regardless of race. The researchers also found that roughly half of the patients initially classified as low-risk were later found to have more aggressive tumors through genomic profiling.
The data suggest that tumor genomic testing for all patients could help guide treatment decisions and reduce racial survival disparities among Black women with breast cancer, said study coauthor Dr. Andrea Menicucci of Agendia.
