The rate of breast cancer varies among women with different ethnic backgrounds. Women of Polynesian and Japanese descent have higher rates of breast cancer compared to African American and Caucasian women. And according to a new study in the journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention estrogen may be the cause.
In the study blood levels of estrogen and androgens were measured in more than 700 post menopausal women. Information about their ethnicity was gathered and compared to circulating levels of hormones.
They found that women with the highest levels of estrogen were from Japanese, Polynesian, or African descent. In the cases of Japanese and Polynesian women, they also have the highest rates of breast cancer. But breast cancer rates for African American postmenopausal women are low, which did not coorelate with the estrogen and adrogen levels.
Still the researchers conclude that the findings of the study are strong enough to advocate for more research into this area. Breast cancer is responsive to hormones such as estrogen and androgens and women who have a greater exposure of estrogen over their lifetime are more at risk for developing the cancer. They also state that more studies examining the relationship between estrogen and African American women with regards to cancer incidence are needed.
Posted by Dr. Christina Gutierrez on October 30, 2006 03:47 PM
