Black women at greater risk of aggressive cancer

Boston, April 4:
According to a new study, black women with breast cancerdefine are more prone than whites to develop a type of tumor that make it especially deadly and hard to treat.

Although the incidence of breast cancerdefine is less in black women than in white women, yet when it occurs it is more advanced when diagnosed, tending to be chronic and persistent.

A research conducted by Dr Carol Rosenberg at Boston University School of Medicine has found that irrespective of the lifestyle, age or weight, black women face thrice the risk of developing an aggressive ‘triple negative tumor’.

The researchers examined the hospital records from the Boston Medical center and concentrated on 451 cases of breast cancer. Thirty-six percent of the women were white, 43 percent were black 10 percent were Hispanic and 11 percent of "other" races. Beside this 47 percent of the women were obese.

They analyzed the age, weight, race, and pathological features focusing on triple-negative tumors that are linked to a poor prognosisdefine. Seventy-two percent of the breast tumors were estrogen receptor-positive or progesterone receptor-positive while 20 percent were triple-negative and 13 percent were HER2-positive.

The researchers observed that nearly 30 percent of the tumors in both young and old black women were triple-negative tumors as opposed to 11-13 percent in other women. There seemed to be no particular significance of weight in black women with triple negative status. Also it was noticed that there was no difference between Caribbean black women and other black women in regard to triple negative tumors.

The study established that the chances of black women having a triple negative tumor were three times higher in comparison to non-black women.

Dr. Carol Rosenberg stated that “Previously, it was known that pre-menopausal black women had more triple negative tumors. What we found that was new was that these tumors were just as common in black women diagnosed before or after age 50, and in those who were or were not obese.

“The higher prevalence of triple negative breast tumors in black women in all age and weight categories likely contributes to black women’s unfavorable breast cancer prognosis.”

Drugs like Herceptin and tamoxifendefine, target these receptors and are considered effective therapies. Triple negative breast cancer is also responsive to chemotherapy.

The Boston study is published in Breast Cancer Research.