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Breast Cancer Incidence Rates Among Orthodox Jewish Women

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Abstract

BRCA 1/BRCA2 founder mutations have been documented among Ashkenazi Jews. Little is known about cancer rates and cancer-related health behaviors among an insular subset of this population, Orthodox Jews. The goal of this study was estimate the risk of breast and ovarian among the Orthodox Jewish population. We used geo-coding with surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) data to identify this subgroup and estimate breast and ovarian cancer rates. Relative to neighborhoods with lower estimated Jewish populations, higher breast cancer rates were found in neighborhoods with higher estimated Orthodox Jewish population, there were no comparable differences in ovarian cancer rates. Implications include more research on health behaviors that may contribute to breast cancer in this insular community.

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Acknowledgments

Data used for this study was provided by Metropolitan Detroit Cancer Surveillance System (MDCSS) with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, Dept. of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN261201000028C. This project was supported in part by NCI Grant (U54CA153606, T. Albrecht, PI), The Jewish Fund, and services conducted by the Behavioral and Field Research and Epidemiology Research Cores, supported in part by NCI Center Grant (P30CA22453) to the Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Wayne State University/Karmanos Cancer Institute, 4100 John R MM03BF, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    Rifky Tkatch, Ronald D. Shore, Louis A. Penner, Michael S. Simon & Terrance L. Albrecht

  2. Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    Kendra Schwartz

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  1. Rifky Tkatch
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  2. Kendra Schwartz
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  3. Ronald D. Shore
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  4. Louis A. Penner
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  5. Michael S. Simon
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  6. Terrance L. Albrecht
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Correspondence to Rifky Tkatch.

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Tkatch, R., Schwartz, K., Shore, R.D. et al. Breast Cancer Incidence Rates Among Orthodox Jewish Women. J Immigrant Minority Health 16, 1007–1010 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-013-9822-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-013-9822-8

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