The Impact of Race and Gender on the Prognosis of Breast and Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Cancer is a unique but complex group of diseases that affect millions of people every year. While some cancers are more common but easily treatable, others are less common but far more detrimental. For example, while breast cancer affects over two million women worldwide every year., the five-year survival rate for localized breast cancer is around 99%, which decreases with advanced stages. However, pancreatic cancer affects a little less than half a million people worldwide annually, but it accounts for 7% of cancer deaths and has a five-year survival rate of only 11%. Despite tissue differences, these cancers still have a large gap between the number of people affected by them and their mortality rates, but the contributing factors are still not understood completely. Two factors that are known to affect various cancers are gender and race, which may play a role in the differences between breast and pancreatic cancer. Here we review the impact of gender and race on the prevalence and prognosis of breast and pancreatic cancer to understand how these factors play a cancer-specific role in the overall lives of patients.