Retrospective analysis of breast cancer patients in an Asian-majority community clinic.

Abstract

e12502 Background: Incidence of breast cancer in Asian countries is about one third to one half of that of the US. Asian immigrants have a higher risk of developing breast cancer in the US presumably by adopting more westernized lifestyles. We conduct a retrospective analysis of breast cancer patients (pts) in an Asian-majority community in Southern California. Methods: Unselected consecutive female breast cancer pts were studied. Clinical data were review and statistical analysis was conducted by SPSS 16.0. Results: 501 pts, 334 Asians (incl. Chinese 84%) and 167 non-Asians (incl. Caucasian 47% and Hispanic 45%) were studied. Conclusions: This study raised several intriguing findings: 1. Asian pts are significantly younger and have lower BMI than non-Asians. 2. Asian pts are more likely to undergo mastectomy than breast conserving surgery. 3. Asian pts tend to have denser breasts which may potentially limit the sensitivity of mammogram. Since the ratio of DCIS to invasive cancer is comparable between Asian and non-Asian pts in this study, mammogram is probably effective in detecting early cancer in Asians. 4. Significantly fewer Asian pts are diagnosed by screening mammogram. It is probably due to lower utilization of mammogram in the Asian population. 5. BRCA1/2 mutation is not significantly different between Asians and non-Asians. Due to inherent limitations of retrospective study, these findings need to be confirmed in a larger prospective study. [Table: see text]