Breast Density Lower in
African American Women
Excerpt By Will Boggs, Reuters Health

Breast density, as measured by mammography, is lower in African American women than in Caucasians and Latinas, according to a report in the August 1st issue of Cancer.

Although breast cancer is not as common in African American women compared with other groups, it tends to be diagnosed at a later stage and is more deadly, Dr. Kevin S. Hughes from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health.

This may be due to one of several possible reasons. African Americans may be diagnosed later for social reasons, because less medical care is available or utilization of medical care is lower. It may be due to intrinsic differences in the cancer, where is more aggressive or harder to find. Alternatively, African American may have breasts that are denser and thus more likely to hide a breast cancer.

Hughes and colleagues used mammograms from 769 women to determine whether mammographic breast density differed for African American, Caucasian, and Latina patients.

On a 4-point scale based on the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System categories, African American women had the lowest mean breast density, compared with Latina or Caucasian women, the authors report. Even after adjustment for age and body mass index, African American women still had a lower mean mammographic breast density than did Latina or Caucasian women.

"What this study does is to show that mammography should be just as effective and that breast density in this population is not greater (in fact, it is less)," Hughes said. "Thus, we have ruled out one of the possible causes of bad outcome in the black population."

"Further study is needed to elucidate the other possible factors that might be responsible for the differences," Hughes concluded.

SOURCE: Cancer, August 1, 2003.

Reference Source 89

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