Study: Gene Mutation More Prevalent in Hispanic, Young Black Breast Cancer Patients
Posted on: Tuesday, 25 December 2007, 18:00 CST
A genetic mutation already known to be more common in breast cancer patients who are Ashkenazi Jews is also prevalent in Hispanic and young African-American women with breast cancer, according to a new study by the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Northern California Cancer Center.
"The message is that these minority breast cancer patients may need screening in ways that we hadn't appreciated before," said Stanford's Alice Whittemore, author of the study, which is published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Based on 3,181 breast cancer patients in Northern California, it is the largest study of the prevalence of mutations of the BRCA1 gene among patients in four ethnic and racial groups.
Although Ashkenazi Jewish women with breast cancer had the highest rate of the BRCA1 mutation at 8.3 percent, Hispanic women with breast cancer were next most likely, with a rate of 3.5 percent. Non-Hispanic whites with breast cancer showed a 2.2 percent rate, followed by 1.3 percent of African-American women of all ages and 0.5 percent in Asian-American women. Of the African-American breast cancer patients under age 35, 16.7 percent had the mutation.
All people have the BRCA1 gene, which makes a protein that helps the cell repair its DNA. Women who inherit a mutation in that gene from either parent are less able to fix DNA damage and tend to accumulate mutations that lead to cancer.
They have a roughly 65
percent risk of developing breast cancer and 39 percent risk of ovarian cancer. If one family member tests positive for a mutation, it can alert other women in the family to also get tested and to take preventive measures.
Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5565.
Source: By Lisa Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
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