Breast cancer histology in Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Pacific Islanders.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between race/ethnicity and histologic types of breast cancer.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Population-based data from the Northern California Tumor Registry, which is part of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program.


METHODS
A total of 2759 breast cancer cases diagnosed in 1988.


RESULTS
Tumors were classified as ductal, lobular, and mixed/unspecified carcinoma. Ductal carcinoma was the most common (83.6%) and lobular carcinoma was the rarest. Most cases were diagnosed in the localized stage (56.3%). Caucasian women had the highest rates of total breast cancer (240.9/100,000), ductal and lobular. In African-American women, the odds of ductal carcinoma were twice that of lobular carcinoma, compared with Caucasian women (odds ratio [OR] = 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0-3.9) after adjusting for age, site, and stage at diagnosis. Similarly, Asian and Hispanic women also had higher, non-statistically significant odds of ductal versus lobular carcinoma compared with Caucasians (OR = 1.8 [95% CI 0.9-3.7] and 1.6 [95% CI 0.8-3.4], respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Future studies should investigate how racial/ethnic differences in histology among breast cancer patients will influence life expectancy, against a backdrop of health care access, sociocultural issues, lifestyle habits, reproductive history, family history, and tumor characteristics.
Klonoff-Cohen
H S
HS
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, School of Medicine, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0607, USA.
Schaffroth
L B
LB
Edelstein
S L
SL
Molgaard
C
C
Saltzstein
S L
SL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian; D044383:Black People; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology*; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D044469:Racial Groups; D018426:SEER Program; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American