ABSTRACT
Background: Racial/ethnic minorities have disproportionately increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and experiencing severe illness;they also have worse breast cancer (BC) outcomes. COVID-19 outcomes among racial/ethnic minorities with BC are currently unknown. We sought to compare clinicopathologic characteristics and COVID-19 outcomes stratified by race/ethnicity. Methods: The COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium registry (NCT04354701) was used to identify patients with invasive BC and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 diagnosed in the U.S. between 2020-03-06 and 2021-02-04. The primary analysis was restricted to women who selfidentified as non-Hispanic White (NHW), nonHispanic Black (NHB), or Hispanic (H). Demographic, cancer characteristics, and COVID-19 outcomes were evaluated. COVID-19 outcomes included: hospital admission, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation, death within 30 days of COVID-19 diagnosis and death from any cause during follow-up. Descriptive statistics were used to compare clinicopathologic characteristics and Fisher exact tests were used to compare COVID19 outcomes across the 3 racial/ethnic groups. Results: A total of 1133 patients were identified of which 1111 (98%) were women;of which 575 (52%) NHW, 243 (22%) NHB, 183 (16%) H, and 110 (10%) other/unknown. Baseline characteristics differed among racial/ethnic groups. H were younger (median age: NHW 63y;NHB 62y;H 54y) and more likely to be never smokers (NHW 62%;NHB 62%;H 78%). NHB had higher rates of obesity (NHW 40%;NHB 54%;H 46%), diabetes (NHW 16 %;NHB 32%;H 20%) and combined moderate and severe baseline COVID-19 at presentation (NHW 28%;NHB 42%;H 28%). Cancer characteristics are as shown (Table). Significant differences were observed in outcomes across racial/ethnic groups including higher rates of hospital admission (NHW 34%;NHB 49%;H 34%;P <0.001), mechanical ventilation (NHW 3%;NHB 9%;H 5%;P=0.002), 30-day mortality (NHW 6%;NHB 9%;H 4%;P=0.043) and total mortality (NHW 8%;NHB 12%;H 5%;P=0.05) among NHB compared to NHW and H. Conclusions: This is the largest study to show significant differences in COVID-19 outcomes by racial/ethnic groups of women with BC. The adverse outcomes in NHB could be due to higher moderate to severe COVID-19 at presentation and preexisting comorbidities. H did not have worse outcomes despite having more active disease and recent anti-cancer therapy, including with cytotoxic chemotherapy - potentially due to younger age and nonsmoking status. (Table Presented).
ABSTRACT
Introduction During the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in USA, NET use has been recommended to allowsafe deferral of surgical treatment in early stage, estrogen receptor positive breast cancer (ER+BC). In suchcircumstances, after NET use there is limited guidance on locoregional treatment, especially with management of the axilla. We aimed to evaluate patterns of care in early stage ER+BC during the first several months of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Method A cross-sectional, 30-item survey was developed using a standardized surveydevelopment framework. The survey was administered May 8 - June 12, 2020 to a convenience sample of medicaloncologists (MO), radiation oncologists (RO), and surgeons (SO) - breast committee members of two nationalcooperative groups (Alliance and SWOG) with additional participation through chain referrals. Providers were presented with general questions on NET use before and during the pandemic. They were asked their propensity foromitting axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) after NET if 1 micrometastatic node is found on sentinel lymph nodebiopsy, based on duration of NET. Results 114 providers from 29 US states completed the survey - 42 (37%) MO, 14(12%) RO, and 58 (51%) SO, the majority (N=73/96, 76%) with practices dedicated ≥ 75% to BC, at NCI designatedcomprehensive cancer centers 52% (N=48/94) and in large cities (N=49/94, 52%). Prior to COVID-19, most rarely(N=49/107, 46%) or sometimes (N=36, 33%) used NET for early stage ER+BC. Nearly half were willing to delay.surgery up to 2 months (46%) and 3 months (21%) without use of NET (Table 1, p<0.05). Most providers wouldperform a genomic assay on the biopsy specimen on all or select patients prior to NET initiation, more frequently byMO compared to RO and SO (90% vs. 75% and 60%, p<0.05). The most preferred regimen was tamoxifen (withoutovarian suppression) for premenopausal patients and aromatase inhibitor for postmenopausal patients. Mostplanned to use NET for as little time as possible until surgery could proceed. When stratified by specialty, more MOstated they would vary the duration of therapy based on patient's risk of cancer progression. Most providersrecommended omitting ALND after 1, 2, or 3 months of NET (1 month N=56/93, 60%;2 months N=54/92, 59%;3months N=48/90, 53%). With longer duration of therapy, the propensity for omitting ALND decreased (definitely omitafter 6 months N=25/91, 27%;probably omit after 6 months N=38/91, 42%;definitely omit after 1 year N=26/92,28%;probably omit after 1 year N=29/92, 32%). Omitting ALND was not associated with provider's years in practice,percent of practice dedicated to BC, practice type or setting, participation in multidisciplinary tumor board, or numberof COVID-19 cases in the provider's practicing state. ConclusionMost providers changed their management of early stage ER+BC during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing NET until surgery could proceed. As the duration of NET extended, more providers favored ALND in low volume axillary metastatic disease in early stage ER+BC.Additional data to inform the care on post-NET locoregional management is needed.