British Asian women have lowest risk of breast cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Asian women living in Britain have a lower rate of breast cancer than any other ethnic group and they live longer if they do develop the disease.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have surveyed the health and survival of almost 116,000 women diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer. They found that the annual rate of the disease was much lower among South Asian women than in other groups - 40.5 per 100,000 compared to 57.4 per 100,000. The Asian women were also much younger when diagnosed - just under 52 compared to 63. Around three times as many of them were younger than 40.

After adjusting for age, over 70 per cent of Asian women were still alive five years after diagnosis, compared to just under 67 per cent for all other women with the disease. Survival rates were also found to be higher among the more affluent groups of women, Asian or not. But even among the poor and disadvantaged, survival rates were still three to eight per cent higher among Asian women.

Source
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health April 2005 Volume 59 pages 402-406

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