For patients in the US who identify as Hispanic, their country of origin appears to have an impact on breast cancer staging and overall survival (OS), according to recent research presented at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The researchers noted there are more than 50 million people in the US who identify as Hispanic, and the group as a whole is a “heterogenous population variably affected by an array of determinants of health, including race and insurance status.”

“This real-world analysis showed that, for Hispanic individuals living in the US with breast cancer, origin is significantly associated with outcomes even after accounting for other known determinants of health,” the researchers wrote in their study abstract.

Using the 2004-2019 National Cancer Database, the researchers analyzed data from 60,438 Hispanic patients in the US with breast cancer where country of origin was identified. They examined whether cancer staging and OS varied by country of origin as well as factors such as age, race, insurance status, histology, grade, and other variables.

The researchers noted 44.3% of the patients (n = 26,800) identified Mexico as their country of origin, 23.8% (n = 14,381) selected a South or Central American country of origin, 16.2% (n = 9,792) selected Puerto Rico, 8.8% (n = 5,283) selected Cuba, and 6.9% (n = 4,172) selected the Dominican Republic.

The researchers found country of origin significantly predicted breast cancer staging at the time of diagnosis after they adjusted for co-variates, with patients with Mexico as a country of origin being significantly more likely to have an advanced breast cancer stage at diagnosis than patients originally from Puerto Rico.

When assessing OS, the researchers found significant differences among patients from different countries of origin after adjusting for confounders and staging at diagnosis, with patients from a South or Central American country of origin and patients originally from the Dominican Republic having significantly improved OS compared with patients with Puerto Rico as a country of origin. The researchers found no significant differences in survival when comparing patients with Mexico and patients with Puerto Rico as a country of origin.

“We suggest that region of origin should be studied further as a potential determinant of outcomes in patients with cancer.”

- Anahi McIntyre, resident at the Icahn School of Medicine.

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Reference:

https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/236746

Disclosures: One author declared financial ties to drugmakers. See full study for details.

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