Study: Black Women With Breast Cancer Have Lower White Blood Cell Counts

African American women with early stage breast cancer tend to have "significantly lower" white blood cell counts than white women, leading to a reduced intensity of treatment that may help explain a lower survival rate, according to New York Presbyterian Hospital researchers.

If the level of white blood cells, the infection-fighting component of blood, falls below treatment thresholds for patients undergoing chemotherapy following breast cancer surgery, reduced doses or treatment delays may occur, which could lead to race-based differences in treatment duration, the researchers said.

In their study of 43 African American and 93 white women with breast cancer who underwent chemotherapy at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the researchers found that the African American women had statistically significantly lower white blood cell counts both at time of diagnosis and after treatment.

As a result, the black women required 19 weeks of chemotherapy treatment compared to 15 weeks for their white counterparts, the researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"The lower baseline white blood cell counts and longer duration of treatment for early-stage breast cancer in African American women compared with those in white women result in lower dose intensity of treatment for African American women, possibly contributing to observed racial differences in breast cancer survival," the researchers concluded.

Other Sources: Journal of the National Cancer Institute