Breast cancer risk increases in South Asian women

ISLAMABAD: The breast cancer risk for British Asian women has increased, a study carried out in Leicester suggests.

Historically women from this ethnic group have had a lower risk of the disease than white British women, the University of Sheffield team researched.

But they found breast cancer incidence had risen in recent years for South Asian women, BBC News reported here. Experts said lifestyle factors such as obesity, or more coming forward for screening could explain the change.

The researchers, who are presenting their work to the National Cancer Intelligence Network Conference in Brighton on Friday, looked at census and cancer data for 135,000 women from different ethnic backgrounds from 2000-2009.

In the year 2000-2004, South Asian women were found to have a 45 percent lower rate of breast cancer compared with white women.

But by the 2005-2009 period, rates of breast cancer among South Asian women had increased significantly and had risen to be 8 percent higher than white women, whose rates had not changed significantly.

Dr. Matthew Day, of the University of Sheffield who led the study, said"Historically South Asian women, and women in lower socio-economic groups, have been considered at lower risk of developing breast cancer. "Based on our study in Leicester, this should no longer be considered the case."

"Or they could be due to changes in lifestyle factors, like having fewer children and having them later in life,increased smoking and many other factors linked to increased breast cancer risk across the board."