Many women who develop breast cancer do not have any known risk factors. Still, we know that women who possess certain risk factors are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer than the general population. Although some women who have one or more risk factors may never develop breast cancer, we can use the knowledge of these risk factors to target higher-risk women with increased breast surveillance and breast cancer prevention strategies. Certain, unavoidable risk factors — such as gender and age — make us all susceptible to breast cancer. Other risk factors, such as family history, are also factors that we cannot change. However, research has shown that there are some risk factors, including alcohol intake and body weight, which are modifiable.
Race, Ethnicity, and the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer Risk Factors: Race/Ethnicity
Breast cancer is not one disease , and eliminating the disparities in outcomes requires improved understanding of biology and implementation of systemwide clinical innovation to deliver high-quality care to all women, one woman at a time. Representing There has been no fundamental shift in the approach to treatment for early-stage breast cancer based on biology. Based on their analysis of women with invasive breast cancer, including non-Hispanic white, 34 Hispanic white, 38 black, 25 Asian, and other ethnicities, the authors found that black women were less likely to be diagnosed with stage I breast cancer non-Hispanic white women, Asian women had the highest likelihood of being diagnosed with stage I breast cancer and a lower risk of dying compared with white women 0. The difference between black women and non-Hispanic white women remained after adjusting for income and estrogen receptor ER status and was statistically significant after excluding patients with triple-negative breast cancer ie, breast cancer cells testing negative for ER, progesterone receptor [PR], and ERBB2.
White women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer than African American, Hispanic, and Asian women. But African American women are more likely to develop more aggressive, more advanced-stage breast cancer that is diagnosed at a young age. African American women are also more likely to die from breast cancer.
Rowan T. Chlebowski, Zhao Chen, Garnet L. Dolan, Electra D. Paskett, Anne McTiernan, F. Alan Hubbell, Lucile L.