Hormones linked with breast cancer risk in blacks
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Overall breast cancer rates have fallen among US women in recent years, but haven’t significantly changed among young African-American women. The researchers suggest this might be partially explained by cosmetic products containing estrogens and placenta, which are more widely used by African Americans.
Steps must be taken to understand this racial disparity so it can be rectified, co-author Dr. Devra L. Davis, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Epidemiology said in a press release accompanying the study.
Davis and her team looked at the incidence of invasive breast cancer among all US women between 1975 and 2002. The current generation of young white women face a 21-percent increased risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, but that risk is 41-percent higher among young African-American women, they found.
They presented their findings this month in Boston at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting.
While their analysis showed that wider use of breast cancer screening and hormone therapy accounted for much of the increased diagnoses among younger white women, these factors didn’t explain black women’s increased diagnoses.
As mentioned, Davis and her colleagues suggest that exposure to hormones in cosmetic products could be a factor. In an upcoming report in the journal Medical Hypothesis, they point out that products containing estrogens and placenta are more widely used among African Americans, and that exposure to such products may begin in infancy.
Makers of personal care products are not required to disclose their hormone contents if they are considered “trade secrets,” Davis and her team note in the report, even though the Food and Drug Administration currently regards personal care products that contain hormones as drugs and subject to regulation.
At any age, African American women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely to die from the disease than are white women. The researchers also propose that greater exposure to estrogen-containing products could explain why breast cancer is more lethal among African-American women.
“Public disclosure by manufacturers of proprietary hormonally active ingredients is required for this research to move forward,” they conclude.
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