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Hispanic Women Three Times More Likely to Develop Advanced Breast Cancer

Study Finds Hispanic Women Also Diagnosed at an Earlier Age

By Lola Quintela
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 16, 2007

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A joint study by researchers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCD) and Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPC), finds that Hispanic women are almost three times more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer than non-Hispanic women.

The study will be published in the May 15 issue of Cancer, the medical journal of the American Cancer Society.

The differences were observed even after the researchers adjusted for factors such as socioeconomic status, the length of time that the women had been enrolled in the managed health care system, and regular checkups.

The study, conducted between 1995 and 2004, included 139 Hispanic women and 2,118 non-Hispanic breast cancer patients. They were all interviewed in Colorado, where they lived.

The researchers observed that the Hispanic patients were diagnosed with more advanced and more aggressive breast cancer. Hispanics were nearly three times more likely to be diagnosed with stage IV disease and twice as likely to have larger tumors, characteristics that result in poorer prognosis. In addition, more Hispanic patients had tumors that lack receptors for the hormone estrogen (ER-negative) which makes the disease more difficult to treat.

Moreover, the Hispanic patients were diagnosed at an earlier age, with an average age of 56 at the time of first diagnosis, compared to 61 for non-Hispanic patients.

The study compared demographic characteristics of the patients to determine if having health insurance affects differences in the presentation of the disease.

The authors of the study concluded that "the persistent findings…of advanced state, larger tumor size ... and fewer cases with estrogen receptors may suggest that true biological differences exist in breast cancer by ethnicity."

Previous research has shown that the incidence of breast cancer varies according to race and ethnicity.

About 203,500 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States this year. Surgery and chemotherapy are standard treatment options for most forms of breast cancer. Early detection is vital to increase the chances of survival, thus the American Cancer Society recommends that women 40 and older get a mammogram every year.

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