Association between patient-surgeon race and gender concordance and patient-reported outcomes following breast cancer surgery

Purpose Surgeon-and patient-related factors have been shown to influence patient experiences, quality of life (QoL), and surgical outcomes. We examined the association between patient-surgeon race and gender concordance with QoL after breast reconstruction.Methods We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of patients who underwent lumpectomy or mastectomy followed by breast reconstruction over a 3-year period. We created the following categories with respect to the race and gender of a patient-surgeon triad: no, intermediate, and perfect concordance. Multivariable regression was used to correlate postoperative global (SF-12) and condition-specific (BREAST-Q) QoL performance with patient-level covariates, gender and race concordance.Results We identified 375 patients with a mean (+/- SD) age of 57.6 +/- 11.9 years, median (IQR) body mass index of 27.5 (24.0, 32.0), and median morbidity burden of 3 (2, 4). The majority of encounters were of intermediate concordance for gender (70%) and race (52%). Compared with gender-discordant triads, intermediate gender concordance was associated with higher SF-Mental scores (beta, 2.60; 95% CI, 0.21-4.99, p = 0.003). Perfect race concordance (35% of encounters) was associated with significantly higher adjusted SF-Physical scores (beta, 2.14; 95% CI, 0.50-4.22, p = 0.045) than the race-discordant group. There were no significant associations observed between race or gender concordance and BREAST-Q performance.Conclusion Race-concordant relationships following breast cancer surgery were more likely to have improved global QoL. Perfect gender concordance was not associated with variation in QoL outcomes. Policy-level interventions are needed to facilitate personalized care and optimize breast cancer surgery outcomes.