Asian Women Have Higher Rate or ER/PR-Negative

Women under 40 with Asian Indian/Pakistani roots have a higher rate of estrogen-negative and progesterone-negative breast cancer--both invasive ductal and inflammatory—than Caucasians. Researchers used data from the United States National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Cancer program to study 360,933 breast cancer cases diagnosed from 1988 to 2006.

Some stats on Asian Indian/Pakistani breast cancer patients:

• 16.2 percent were under 40 years old compared to 6.23 percents of Caucasians.

• They had more invasive ductal carcinoma and inflammatory cancer, and less invasive lobular carcinoma than Caucasians.

• Adjusting for stage at diagnosis, age, tumor grade, nodal status, and histology, Asian Indian/Pakistani women's survival was similar to Caucasians, while African Americans' was worse.

Read the abstract or get a PDF of the article here.

SOURCE: Kakarala, Madhuri, Rozek, Laura, Cote, Michele, Liyanage, Samadhi Brenner, Dean, 'Breast cancer histology and receptor status characterization in Asian Indian and Pakistani women in the U.S. - a SEER analysis', BMC Cancer , vol. 10, no. 1, 191+ (2010).