乳腺癌Patients of Color Less Likely to Complete Pre-Surgery Chemo

Intolerable side effects of tumor-shrinking treatment may play a role

byAmy Hendel, P.A. Health Writer

化疗可以是a crucial element of breast cancer treatment. It’s essential to complete the entire recommended regimen of chemotherapy to prevent recurrences and possibly lengthen survival after treatment.New research表明,非白人女性不太可能完成全学期化疗疗程以治疗乳腺癌。是什么赋予了?

Researchers enlisted 124 women with a diagnosis of breast cancer who were taking neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This is chemotherapy that is recommended to patients with large tumors or “heavy tumor load” prior to surgery, in order to shrink the tumors and perhaps allow for less extensive surgery. Ideally, the therapy would reduce the tumors enough for doctors could perform a lumpectomy or other breast-conserving surgery rather than a complete mastectomy. Out of the group, 92 subjects (74 percent) completed their full neoadjuvant regimen.

After accounting for data including age, insurance coverage, and tumor size, which all can affect a patient’s chemotherapy completion, the researchers noted thatwhite women were more than three times more likely to finish this type of neoadjuvant therapy than black, Hispanic, and Asian women。高级研究员承认乳腺癌患者的诊断,治疗和存活率根据种族而异。获得医疗保健,保险覆盖的可能性,筛查频率,治疗的侵蚀性以及寻求和/或跟进医疗保健的能力是不同种族的女性中的所有变量。

In this study there was no clear explanation for why white women were more likely to complete neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Experts noted that对化疗的毒性— meaning, side effects that made it hard to tolerate the treatment to its completion — seemed to be the major explanation. The most common complaints were neurological problems or pain for women of color and gastrointestinal complaints for white women. Some of the women stopped treatment because the disease was progressing despite the chemo, psychological reasons, social issues, or personal beliefs (for instance, “the chemotherapy, not the disease, is killing me.”)

It’s important to note that there was no significant difference among the kinds of neoadjuvant therapies prescribed to the patients. As it turned out, the neoadjuvant therapy did not help many patients to qualify for less extensive surgery. Nor did a secondary goal, pathologic complete response (pCR), seem to depend on whether the women finished their neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A pCR is when no tumor remains after neoadjuvant therapy, which is linked to better survival odds.

这researchers also noted that non-white participants had larger tumors before the chemotherapy; it’s possible their cancers tended to be more advanced when diagnosed, or that they waited longer before treatment. The non-white patients were also more likely in this study to have government health plans like Medicaid, but that did not appear to affect outcomes.

有一些变量需要考虑这项研究。这是一项小型研究,只包括38名非白人患者,似乎是由于化疗毒性问题所做的那些停止化疗的大多数患者。最终,整理辅助治疗似乎似乎没有减少所需的乳房手术的程度,或导致肿瘤消失。

尽管如此,完成Neoadjuvant疗法是一个重要的目标治疗乳腺癌。一些专家认为,这种特殊的研究表明,研究应该更加强烈地关注找到更容易耐受的,毒性的化疗方案更强。

在最早阶段鉴定乳腺癌,将患者从事早期治疗,并确保患者完全符合推荐的治疗,这对于帮助患者寿命更长并预防癌症的复发是重要的。那么我们如何达到游戏领域,以便所有女性,无论种族,都有最好的机会打击和击败乳腺癌吗?

Research shows that women of color (including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and American Indians) seem to have similar乳腺癌survival rates whether or not they have insurance coverage. There are many factors influencing why these women don’t get the screening and care they need. They may still be unable to cover the indirect and direct costs of cancer care, defer their health needs in favor of the rest of the family, have low health literacy, lack correct information, or labor under long-held myths about the disease.

Health professionals and community leaders need to promote better outreach to all women with possible breast health issues, and direct breast cancer campaigns to underserved cultures and communities. This is also an opportunity to update approaches to sex education to acknowledge cultural influences that may affect women's health literacy, in order to provide directed breast health education at a younger age.

如果您需要支持,咨询,金融服务或其他帮助乳腺癌诊断,您可以伸出协议wide range of organizations。这妇女的健康和癌症行为helps to protect your right to have reconstruction after mastectomy by requiring your insurance to cover those costs.

在您的权力中最重要的是,从您信赖的健康专业人士寻求可靠的健康信息,以及经历乳腺癌挑战的家庭或朋友。

Meet Our Writer
Amy Hendel, P.A.

被称为“healthgal”,amy hendel p.a.是医疗和生活方式记者,营养和健身专家,卫生教练和品牌大使。她培训为医生助理,她在纽约和洛杉矶维护了健康教练私人惯例。健康家庭的四种习惯的作者,在Twitter @ healthgal1103和Facebook @thehealthgal找到她。在HealthGal.com查看“每日健康新闻”。她的个人口头禅?“首先用食物,健身和生活方式来修复它。”