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Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a molecularly heterogeneous disease whose incidence is disproportionately higher in African American (AA) women compared to European American (EA) women. Earlier onset, more advanced stage at diagnosis, and aggressive tumor phenotype are some of the characteri...

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Autores principales: Siddharth, Sumit, Sharma, Dipali
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6316530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30558195
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers10120514
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author Siddharth, Sumit
Sharma, Dipali
author_facet Siddharth, Sumit
Sharma, Dipali
author_sort Siddharth, Sumit
collection PubMed
description Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a molecularly heterogeneous disease whose incidence is disproportionately higher in African American (AA) women compared to European American (EA) women. Earlier onset, more advanced stage at diagnosis, and aggressive tumor phenotype are some of the characteristic features of TNBC in women with African ethnicity in comparison to EA women, denoting one of the most significant examples of racial disparity in oncology. It is still contentious whether health disparities result in aggressive behavior of TNBC in AA women or it is indeed a molecularly distinct disease. Given the “gaps-in-knowledge” surrounding racial disparity in TNBC, this review discusses various socioeconomic factors and the genetic predispositions contributing to poor prognosis of TNBC in AA women. While socioeconomic factors may contribute to poorer survival, multiple preclinical and clinical studies suggest inherent genetic risk factors and aberrant activation of oncogenic pathways in AA TNBC. Additionally, AA women are more likely to be obese and obesity is known to drive a molecular circuitry resulting in aggressive tumor progression indicating a potential obesity-TNBC axis at work in AA women. Given the multifactorial nature of AA TNBC, a transdisciplinary approach may help bridge the disparity that exists between AA and EA TNBC.
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spelling pubmed-63165302019-01-09 Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants Siddharth, Sumit Sharma, Dipali Cancers (Basel) Review Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a molecularly heterogeneous disease whose incidence is disproportionately higher in African American (AA) women compared to European American (EA) women. Earlier onset, more advanced stage at diagnosis, and aggressive tumor phenotype are some of the characteristic features of TNBC in women with African ethnicity in comparison to EA women, denoting one of the most significant examples of racial disparity in oncology. It is still contentious whether health disparities result in aggressive behavior of TNBC in AA women or it is indeed a molecularly distinct disease. Given the “gaps-in-knowledge” surrounding racial disparity in TNBC, this review discusses various socioeconomic factors and the genetic predispositions contributing to poor prognosis of TNBC in AA women. While socioeconomic factors may contribute to poorer survival, multiple preclinical and clinical studies suggest inherent genetic risk factors and aberrant activation of oncogenic pathways in AA TNBC. Additionally, AA women are more likely to be obese and obesity is known to drive a molecular circuitry resulting in aggressive tumor progression indicating a potential obesity-TNBC axis at work in AA women. Given the multifactorial nature of AA TNBC, a transdisciplinary approach may help bridge the disparity that exists between AA and EA TNBC. MDPI 2018-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6316530/ /pubmed/30558195 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers10120514 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Siddharth, Sumit
Sharma, Dipali
Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants
title Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants
title_full Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants
title_fullStr Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants
title_full_unstemmed Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants
title_short Racial Disparity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in African-American Women: A Multifaceted Affair between Obesity, Biology, and Socioeconomic Determinants
title_sort racial disparity and triple-negative breast cancer in african-american women: a multifaceted affair between obesity, biology, and socioeconomic determinants
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6316530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30558195
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers10120514
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