Reporting on Race and Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer: The Neglect of Racism as a Driver of Inequitable Care

Objective: This study reviews the surgical literature on racial disparities in breast cancer mortality, specifically evaluating the inclusion, justification, and discussion of race and ethnicity as a driver of disparities.

Summary of background data: The volume of research on racial disparities has increased over the past 2 decades, but we hypothesize that there is considerable variation in how race is contextualized, defined, and captured in the disparities literature, leading to its questionable validity and relevance as a covariate. Recent guidelines for reporting have been suggested, but not yet applied.

Methods: A rubric was developed to evaluate the reporting of race and/or ethnicity. A systematic review (2010-2020) was performed to identify studies reporting on racial disparities in breast cancer surgery and mortality. We then evaluated these original articles based on key domains of race and/or ethnicity: justification for inclusion, formal definition, methodology used for classification, and type of racism contributing to disparity.

Results: Of the 52 studies assessed, none provided a formal definition for race and/or ethnicity. A justification for the inclusion of race and/or ethnicity was provided in 71% of the studies. Although 81% of studies discussed at least 1 potential driver of observed racial disparities, only 1 study explicitly named racism as a driver of racial disparities.

Conclusions: Significant improvement in the reporting on racial disparities in breast cancer surgical literature is warranted. A more rigorous framework should be applied by both researchers and publishers in reporting on race, racial health disparities, and racism.