Racial/ethnic disparities in mortality among US breast cancer patients are well documented. Our knowledge of the contribution of lifestyle factors to disease prognosis is based primarily on non-Latina Whites and is limited for Latina, African American, and Asian American women. To address this knowledge gap, the California Breast Cancer Survivorship Consortium (CBCSC) harmonized and pooled interview information (e.g., demographics, family history of breast cancer, parity, smoking, alcohol consumption) from six California-based breast cancer studies and assembled corresponding cancer registry data (clinical characteristics, mortality), resulting in 12,210 patients (6,501 non-Latina Whites, 2,060 African Americans, 2,032 Latinas, 1,505 Asian Americans, 112 other race/ethnicity) diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer between 1993 and 2007. In total, 3,047 deaths (1,570 breast cancer specific) were observed with a mean (SD) follow-up of 8.3 (3.5) years. Cox proportional hazards regression models were fit to data to estimate hazards ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for overall and breast cancer-specific mortality. Compared with non-Latina Whites, the HR of breast cancer-specific mortality was 1.13 (95 % CI 0.97-1.33) for African Americans, 0.84 (95 % CI 0.70-1.00) for Latinas, and 0.60 (95 % CI 0.37-0.97) for Asian Americans after adjustment for age, tumor characteristics, and select lifestyle factors. The CBCSC represents a large and racially/ethnically diverse cohort of breast cancer patients from California. This cohort will enable analyses to jointly consider a variety of clinical, lifestyle, and contextual factors in attempting to explain the long-standing disparities in breast cancer outcomes.

CDC Public Access

1U58 DP000807-01/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
HHSN261201000140C/PHS HHS/United States
HHSN26120100034C/PHS HHS/United States
HHSN26120100035C/PHS HHS/United States
K05 CA136967/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
N01-HD-3-3175/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States
N01CN25403/CN/NCI NIH HHS/United States
P30 ES007048/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States
R01 CA077398/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R01 CA54281/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R01 CA63446/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R01 CA77305/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R01 CA77398/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R01CA129059/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R37CA54281/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
UM1 CA164973/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States