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Breast Cancer Subtypes in Asian-Americans Differ According to Asian Ethnic Group

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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Breast cancer prognosis and breast cancer molecular subtype vary by race/ethnicity. We determined whether the distribution of breast cancer subtypes varies among different Asian ethnic groups. Using immunohistochemical surrogates for the four molecularly defined breast cancer subtypes, we characterized breast cancer subtype for 346 Asian subjects treated at two New York City institutions. We found that Chinese and Japanese had a higher proportion of good-prognosis luminal A cancers (66.7 and 80.0%, respectively) compared to Filipinos and Koreans (48.5 and 47.1%) (P = 0.001). Filipinos had a higher proportion of HER-2/neu positive cancers (45.6%) compared to other ethnic groups (23.6%) (P = 0.002). Koreans had a higher proportion of triple negative cancers (23.5%) compared to other ethnic groups (7.5%) (P = 0.06). The results suggest that differences exist in breast cancer tumor biology among distinct Asian ethnic groups and have implications for cancer care and research. Future studies of breast cancer in Asian-Americans should distinguish among the different ethnic groups.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Christos and Dr. Mazumdar were partially supported by the Clinical Translational Science Center (CTSC) (UL1-RR024996) grant. A. Flamm was supported by the Anne Moore Breast Cancer Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, 425 E. 61st Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Ellen Chuang, Arielle Flam, Linda Vahdat & Anne Moore

  2. Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Paul Christos & Madhu Mazumdar

  3. Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Katherine McCarville, Melissa Forst & Paula Klein

  4. Department of Pathology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Sandra Shin

  5. Department of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Alexander Swistel & Rache Simmons

  6. Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Michael Osborne

Authors
  1. Ellen Chuang
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  2. Paul Christos
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  3. Arielle Flam
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  4. Katherine McCarville
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  5. Melissa Forst
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  6. Sandra Shin
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  7. Linda Vahdat
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  8. Alexander Swistel
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  9. Rache Simmons
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  10. Michael Osborne
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  11. Anne Moore
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  12. Madhu Mazumdar
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  13. Paula Klein
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ellen Chuang.

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Chuang, E., Christos, P., Flam, A. et al. Breast Cancer Subtypes in Asian-Americans Differ According to Asian Ethnic Group. J Immigrant Minority Health 14, 754–758 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9577-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9577-7

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