"Administering chemotherapy to AfricanAmerican breast cancer patients prior to surgery could improve their prognosis and survival rates from the disease according to a new study.  A research team led by Georgia State University found AfricanAmerican breast cancer patients who receive chemotherapy prior to surgery exhibit trends of reduced regional in lymph nodes recurrence and distant in remote organs such as the liver lungs and brain recurrence of tumors which may help diminish the inequality in breast cancerrelated clinical outcomes between AfricanAmerican and EuropeanAmerican patients.  There is a significant disparity in breast cancer mortality between AfricanAmerican and EuropeanAmerican breast cancer patients. Despite a similar number of reported cases of breast cancer among AfricanAmerican and EuropeanAmerican women AfricanAmericans experience a more aggressive clinical course and a  percent higher death rate than EuropeanAmericans among premenopausal and menopausal breast cancer patients.  Recurrent breast cancer has hindered the successful management of this disease for decades and is one of the primary factors for the racial disparity in prognosis and outcomes. Differences in recurrence rates and patterns between the races following various forms of treatment have not been thoroughly investigated. This is the first clinical study to suggest that neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment prior to surgery may improve breast cancer recurrence rates and patterns in AfricanAmericans. The results are published in the journal PLOS ONE. Researchers at Georgia State analyzed clinical data from a large cohort of breast cancer patients treated at Northside Hospital in Atlanta from  to . The patients selfreported races were primarily AfricanAmerican and EuropeanAmerican. The researchers studied rates and patterns of tumor recurrence after hormone radiation and chemotherapy among AfricanAmerican and EuropeanAmerican breast cancer patients.  We found that in general AfricanAmerican breast cancer patients exhibit increased likelihood for tumor recurrence particularly to regional and distant sites after receiving any combination of adjuvant therapy treatment following surgery compared to EuropeanAmerican breast cancer patients. This higher incidence of tumor recurrence can contribute to a poorer prognosis said Nikita Wright first author of the study and a senior Ph.D. student in Dr. Ritu Anejas laboratory in Georgia States Biology Department. When breast cancer recurs it is more challenging to treat regional and distant tumors than local tumors in the breast Wright explained.  Interestingly we found that neoadjuvant chemotherapy actually reversed these recurrence trends Wright said. We found that AfricanAmerican breast cancer patients responded better to neoadjuvant chemotherapy than EuropeanAmerican patients. Among patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy AfricanAmericans exhibited trends of lower regional and distant tumor recurrence than EuropeanAmericans but higher local recurrence which is easier to manage clinically and is associated with a relatively better prognosis.  The researchers also found that among early stage patients noninvasive or minimally invasive breast cancer AfricanAmericans displayed higher tumor recurrence than EuropeanAmerican patients.  Coauthors of the study include Jun Xia Sergey Klimov Pranay Neema Dr. Dora Ilyasova Dr. Padmashree C. G. Rida Dr. Remus Osan and Dr. Aneja of Georgia State Dr. Guilherme Cantuaria and Dr. Mildred Jones of the Northside Hospital Cancer Institute Dr. Uma Krishnamurti Dr. Xiaoxian Bill Li and Dr. Michelle D. Reid of Emory University and Dr. Meenakshi Gupta of West Georgia Hospitals.  The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. To view the study visit httpjournals.plos.orgplosonearticleid.journal.pone.."