By: Kayleigh Sommer
From: valleymorningstar.com
A genetic deviation that is common in some Hispanic women with Native American lineage appears to lower the risk of breast cancer, according to a new study.
Published in the Oct. 20 issue of Nature Communications, the new study showed that women who carry the variant have breast tissue that appears less dense on mammograms. High “mammographic density” is a known risk factor for breast cancer, the study stated.
Dr. Gail Tomlinson, a board-certified pediatric oncologist, is part of the Genetic Risk Assessment for Cancer in All of South Texas team based at the Regional Academic Health Center. She also is a translational investigator in cancer genetics.
“We don’t know for sure how this study applies to the local population of Hispanic women,” Tomlinson said. “We do know that rates of breast cancer are slightly less than other ethnic groups. However, breast cancer is still a major problem.”
The variant according to Tomlinson is the genetic code that makes up our genome like an alphabet. “It means that there is one very small misspelling. Its not a true mutation which we know causes a serous condition but just a minor misspelling,” she said.
Women who carried one copy of the variant were about 40 percent less likely to have breast cancer, while those with two copies had double that level of protection. Their risk was particularly lower for the type of breast cancer known as estrogen-receptor negative, a more aggressive form of the disease.
The finding may also explain why Latinas have lower rates of breast cancer than other Americans. According to federal data, Hispanic women have less than a 10 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer, compared with 13 percent for non-Hispanic whites and 11 percent for blacks.
“If this variant decreases the risk of breast cancer or keeps cells from turning into cancer, it could be something that can be turned into a potential way to stop cancer cells from growing. However, we are a long way from all that,” she said.
Certain behavioral factors have been taken into account for at least part of this reduced risk. For example, Tomlinson said Hispanic women are less likely to use postmenopausal hormones, and they tend to have more children and give birth at younger ages.
This is the first study to include large numbers of Latinas, who came from California, Colombia and Mexico, the study stated.
Tomlinson said the new study’s findings are very preliminary. “This kind of test won’t be available for a long time,” she said. “We hope to do a study to validate this finding in our population.”
“In this area if we were to do a study we would focus just on local Hispanic women.”
Barbara Jacoby is an award winning blogger that has contributed her writings to multiple online publications that have touched readers worldwide.