A new study conducted by a team of U.S. researchers indicates that a genetic mutation seems to be common between Hispanic, young African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish women who suffer from breast cancer.
Initially it was known that the mutation of the BRCA1 gene exists amongst Ashkenazi Jews, however researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Northern California Cancer Center discovered that it also prevails amongst Hispanic and young African-American women, reported San Jose Mercury News.
Study author Alice Whittemore of Stanford stated, “The message is that these minority breast cancer patients may need screening in ways that we hadn’t appreciated before.”
While the Ashkenazi Jewish women suffering from breast cancer showed the highest rate of the BRCA1 mutation at 8.3 percent, next were Hispanic women at 3.5 percent, followed by African-American women at 1.3 percent. On the other hand, non-Hispanic whites with breast cancer showed a 2.2 percent rate.
The study included 3,181 California cancer cases, having women under 65-years of age. 16.7 percent of those under age 35 had the mutation.
Those with the mutation have around a 65 percent risk of developing breast cancer and 39 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer.
The study will be published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.