Washington, Dec 26: A new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Northern California Cancer Center has found that a genetic mutation, already known to be more prevalent in Ashkenazi Jewish breast cancer patients, is also common in Hispanic and young African-American women with breast cancer. The findings are based on a study of 3,181 breast cancer patients in Northern California. It showed that although Ashkenazi Jewish women with breast cancer had the highest rate of the BRCA1 mutation at 8.3 percent, Hispanic women with breast cancer were next most likely, with a rate of 3.5 percent.
Non-Hispanic whites with breast cancer showed a 2.2 percent rate, followed by 1.3 percent of African-American women of all ages and 0.5 percent in Asian-American women. Of the African-American breast cancer patients under age 35, 16.7 percent had the mutation.
Esther John, PhD, research scientist at the Northern California Cancer Center and consulting associate professor of health research and policy at Stanford, lead author of the paper, said that the work marks the largest study to date to look at the prevalence of BRCA1 mutations among patients in the four ethnic and racial groups.
The researchers said that the information could help doctors decide which patients to refer to genetic counselling. They added that they hope the information prompts genetic counsellors to develop materials for discussing breast cancer risk in a culturally sensitive way and in languages other than English.
During the study, researchers found that although mutations can occur throughout the BRCA1 gene, the Hispanic women in the study were more likely to carry a particular mutation that’s also common in Ashkenazi Jewish women. Other ethnic groups carried a wide range of different mutations.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
拉美和年轻黑人妇女更易得乳腺癌
据华盛顿26日电:斯坦福大学医学院和北卡来罗纳癌症研究中心的研究人员研究发现, 一种在Ashkenazi犹太乳腺癌患者中十分常见的突变基因在拉美和年轻的非裔美国乳腺癌患者中也十分常见
这项发现是在研究了3181名北卡来罗纳的乳腺癌患者之后得出的。研究表明,尽管Ashkenazi犹太妇女中BRCA1变种出现频率最高,为8.3%,拉美乳腺癌患者居第二,比率为3.5%。
非拉美籍白人中乳腺癌的患者中变种出现的比率为2.2%,其次是拉美妇女的比率为1.3%,
排在其后的是亚裔妇女,比率为0.5%。而年龄在35岁以下的非裔乳腺癌患者中,有16.7的人有这种基因变异。
Esther John博士是北卡来罗纳癌症研究中心的科学家及斯坦福有关健康研究和相关政策的基因副教授顾问,也是这篇论文的主要作者,他认为这项研究工作是对BRCA1变种在这四个种族的患者当中出现的普遍程度的最深入的一次研究。
研究人员认为,这个信息可以帮助医生决定哪个病人应该接受基因方面的咨询。他们还补充说他们希望这个信息可以促使基因咨询师用英语以外的语言从文化的角度写一篇关于乳腺癌的文章。
在研究过程当中研究人员发现,尽管变异主要是发生在BRCA1基因上,接受研究的拉美妇女更容易携带一种在Ashkenazi犹太妇女当中也十分常见的特殊变种。而其他种族的妇女携带的变种范围则要广泛的多。
这项研究结果发表在了美国医学协会杂志上。
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