Race differences in breast cancer due to biology

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Differences in how many Hispanic and Caucasian women are diagnosed with breast cancer may be the result of biological factors rather than differences in access to healthcare services, according to finding published in the journal Cancer.

Previous research has shown that the average Hispanic woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer has different characteristics that the average non-Hispanic white women, Dr. Tim Byers, of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, and colleagues write.

"These differences," they note, "include earlier (average) age at diagnosis, later stage of disease at diagnosis, and the presence of tumor characteristics associated with poor prognosis."

To see whether these differences persist for Hispanic women despite equal access to screening and care, the team compared Hispanic and non-Hispanic white breast cancer cases registered between 1995 and 2004 in the Kaiser Permanente of Colorado Tumor Registry. Included in the study were 139 Hispanic women and 2,118 non-Hispanic white women.

The use of mammographic screening services in the prior 2 years was similar between the groups.

The average age at diagnosis was significantly younger for Hispanic women than for non-Hispanic white women. Thirty-one percent of Hispanic women were diagnosed under age 50 years, compared with 20 percent of non-Hispanic white women.

Relative to non-Hispanic white women, Hispanic women were more likely to be diagnosed with large, aggressive breast cancers.

These findings, which took into account access to healthcare, "suggest that true biologic differences exist in breast cancer by ethnicity," Byers and colleagues conclude. Future research should delve further into this topic and determine if breast cancer prevention strategies should differ by race, they add.

SOURCE: Cancer, May 15, 2007.