Hispanic Women at higher risk of Breast Cancer - Study

Hispanic women are more likely to have a cancer-causing mutation in a gene than patients of different other races or ethnic groups, a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Northern California Cancer Center revealed yesterday.

The first-of-a-kind large-scale study compared the presence of a harmful mutation in a gene, known as BRCA1, in women of different races. BRCA1 breast cancer gene, which, if mutated, may increase a woman’s risk of developing deadly type of breast cancer, is already common in Ashkenazi Jews.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that 3.5 percent of Hispanic women had the BRCA1 mutation compared 8.3 percent for Ashkenazi Jews, 2.2 percent for non-Ashkenazi white women, and 1.3 percent of black patients. Only 0.5 percent of Asian-American women had the gene mutation.

To reach their findings, lead researcher Esther John at the Northern California Cancer Center in Fremont, California and colleagues examined 549 non-Hispanic white female patients with breast cancer, 444 Asian-American patients, 393 Hispanic patients and 341 black patients.

"The vast majority of breast cancer patients do not have a mutation in these genes," said Esther John. "But if women have a mutation, they do have a very high risk of developing breast cancer. That's why it is important information in the family, because if a mother has the mutation, her daughters are likely to have the mutation as well."

Breast cancer is the most common tumor in women. It is a malignant form of tumor spreading quickly to the bones, hips, lungs and in some, the brain. One in ten women is likely to develop breast cancer and almost 75% would do so after menopause. Besides hereditary or genetic factors, some other causes of this form of tumor are early puberty, late menopause, not having a child or having a first child after age 30. Risk is considerably lowered if one has short menstrual life, large family or first child before the age of 18.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the two most familiar breast cancer genes, which cause a quarter of hereditary cases. Besides accounting for 15% of all breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations are associated with increased risk of variety of other cancer including ovarian cancer.

The risk of development of breast cancer in women carrying BRCA2 mutations are similar to the risk of BRCA1 carriers, however the risk of development of ovarian cancer is lower in BRCA2 mutation carriers compared to BRCA1 mutation carriers.

It is already known that women carrying a defective copy of the BRCA1 gene have up to an 85 percent lifetime risk of developing the disease.

According to Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) data, breast cancer engulfs 500,000 lives a year globally.