Study finds black women are diagnosed with breast cancer decades earlier
Ethnicity is a determining factor in how early different people get cancer, according to recent findings by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre.
They found that black women develop breast cancer two decades earlier than white women. In addition, findings suggested that the survival rate was poorer among black women with smaller tumours.
Study author Dr Rebecca Owen said the difference in the way tumours of black and white women behave can be put down to the biological differences between the two ethnic groups.
A total of 25% of all breast cancer cases diagnosed in London during the study period were in women aged 45 or younger. That figure rose to 45% among the black population.
Cancer Research director of cancer information Lesley Walker said this was a relatively small study and that there were therefore limitations in the data. "We would look to see this work repeated in a larger study as the risk may shift on a wider proportion of people," she said.
She added that the findings were "certainly similar to data from the US".
Walker said, it may be necessary to alter screening services offered to black women to better reflect the age at which they are diagnosed with breast cancer.
The study involved looking at 293 women in Hackney and found that black women were 21 years younger than white women when they were diagnosed.
Another study has found that postmenopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy may be four times more likely to develop certain forms of breast cancer.
Commenting on the findings in the journal of Cancer Epidemiology, lead author Dr Christopher Li said hormone replacement therapy may have contributed to the recent increase in cases of lobular breast cancer in the US.
