Friday, 25 January 2008

Early onset of breast cancer in a group of British black women

R L Bowen, S W Duffy, D A Ryan, I R Hart & J L Jones
British Journal of Cancer (2008) 98, 277-281
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v98/n2/abs/6604174a.html

Black women had a higher frequency of grade 3 tumours, lymph node-positive disease, negative oestrogen receptor and progesterone receptor status and basal-like (triple negative status) tumours. There were no differences in stage at presentation; however, for tumours of 2 cm, black patients had poorer survival than white patients (HR=2.90, 95% CI 0.98-8.60, P=0.05). Black women presented, on average, 21 years younger than white women. Tumours in younger women were considerably more aggressive in the black population, more likely to be basal-like, and among women with smaller tumours, black women were more than twice as likely to die of their disease. There were no disparities in socioeconomic status or treatment received. Our findings could have major implications for the biology of breast cancer and the detection and treatment of the disease in black women

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