Ashkenazi Jewish women with BRCA1 mutations more likely to have TNBC

We know that women with triple-negative breast cancer are more likely to be young and premenopausal and that African-American Women are disproportionately affected by the disease. Now, a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology adds another group that might be at special risk of TNBC: Ashkenazi Jewish women.

The details:

• Ashkenazi Jewish women with BRCA1 mutations were five times more likely to be diagnosed with TNBC that were women from other ethnic and religious groups.

• The BRCA1 mutations in Ashkenazi Jewish women in the study had a specific genetic profile, as opposed to the genetic variations found in women from other groups.

• Researchers studied 1,469 patients from Los Angeles County between t20 and 49 years who had been diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer.

• The number of Ashkenazi Jewish women with the BRCA1 mutation were too small—13—for this study to be definitive, but it does raise an interesting question that deserves additional study.