African American Women and Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Widened Disparities Associated with Covid-19 Pandemic - Abstract
Background: Breast cancer accounts for approximately one third of all cancers in women and it is the second most common cancer deaths among women. However, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the aggressive, polymorphic sub-type of breast cancer. It accounts for 10-20% of all breast cancers in the United States, affecting African American (AA) women disproportionately. The lifetime probability of developing breast cancer in African American Women is 1 in 8 versus 1 in 9 for white American Women, yet AA women experience greater mortality rates than their female counterparts (Saini, Ogden, McCullough, Torres, Rida and Aneja, 2019). AA women are diagnosed younger with more advanced tumors. Literature is indecisive to the extent of the impact of disadvantage neighborhood, yet research suggest that segregated disadvantaged poverty neighborhoods are associated with the highest diagnosis TNBC and decreased standard of care during Covid-19 pandemic. This review study focuses on the possible contributing factors associated with the development of TNBC and the effect of delayed treatment during Covid-19 pandemic.
Methods: Forty articles were extracted from PubMed and Google Scholar, but only articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected for this review. The inclusions were TNBC, African American women, disparities, Covid-19, socioeconomic and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Exclusions were other subtypes of cancer, ethnic groups and men.
Results: The study indicated a strong link between disadvantaged neighborhoods and lower socioeconomic status and high mortality rate associated with TNBC in AA women population. Additionally, Covid-19 was associated with the widened disparities in treatment delays and high mortality rates among the AA women with TNBC.