Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and, racial disparity of breast cancer has been known to influence the age of occurrence, prognosis and response to the treatment. The objective of this study is to analyze the variations in the expression of the receptor proteins- estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER-2/neu, in early onset breast cancer cross races. Data was collected by reviewing patient charts obtained from the participating institutions and was stratified according to age (Younger group: 40 year old and younger women; older age group: greater than 40 year old women), races (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Chinese and Indian), receptor status (ER, PR and HER-2) according to Luminal A, B, HER-2 and Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) subtypes, grade and stage. Results show that while African American women have higher percentage of TNBC than the Caucasian, there are evident variations in receptor status among other races. In Chinese woman of younger age group, 18.2% presented with TNBC subtype. However, in the same group, the HER-2 overexpression (ER-/PR-, HER-2+), luminal A (ER+/PR+, HER2-) and B (ER+/PR+, HER2+) subtypes were 9.1%, 45.5% and 9.0% respectively. In Indian women, TNBC has been found to be about 1.5 folds higher in younger age group (34 %) than older group (23 %) while HER-2 overexpression and the luminal A and B subgroups were 14.3%, 42.2% and 9.5%, respectively, somewhat similar to those in Chinese women. Our preliminary findings demonstrated that the expression of receptor proteins (ER, PR and Her-2/neu) in early onset breast cancer differs among different ethnic or racial women, suggesting a biological basis of distinct prognosis or therapeutic response related to racial disparities. This study will help to develop optimal personalized management strategies for breast cancer cross the races.

Citation Format: Mandeep Singh,, Yi Ding, Liying Zhang, Susan Lee, Dong Song, Shruti Grover, Dinesh Chandra Doval, Dara S. Ross, Charles Shao, Changcheng Zhu, Ruliang Xu, Zili He, David Zhang, Jinhua Wang, Victor Chang, Margaret Chen, Phyllis August, Peng Lee,,. Receptor status in early-onset breast cancer across races. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2012 Oct 27-30; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2012;21(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B63.