Young Asian and Pacific Islander women born in California have increased risk of breast cancer than young white women including Filipinos, might have higher risks than African-Americans, according to a new study.
Overall breast cancer incidence rates published from national cancer surveillance data might mask important pockets of elevated risk, said study co-author Susan Hurley, a research associate at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California.
"Historically, rates that suggest a low breast cancer risk among Asian and Pacific Islander women do not usually focus on young women," Hurley said. "They also do not take into account factors such as birthplace, migration status and ethnic ancestry, all of which may determine risk."
For the study appearing in the latest issue of the journal Ethnicity & Disease, Hurley and colleagues used data from a previous study, which found a link between breast cancer cases in California birth records from 1988 to 2004.
The authors looked at data from 3,799 women born in California in the 1960s who eventually developed breast cancer and 17,461 women born in California during the same period who did not develop the disease. Study participants ranged in age from 20 to 44 years, with an average age at diagnosis of 36 years. Findings showed that young California-born Asian and Pacific Islander women had about a 62 percent higher risk of breast cancer than young white women.
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