Breast cancer study looks at race

A new study examines the rates of breast cancer diagnoses and survival rates among women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Doctors in Toronto reviewed the records of more than 450,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Seven years later, they look at how women from different backgrounds recovered.

“Compared to a white woman, a black woman was one and a half times to two times more likely to die of a small breast cancer and a Chinese woman or Japanese woman were about half as likely to die of a small breast cancer. Hispanic women had a very similar survival pattern to white women that were not Hispanic,” says Dr. Steven Narod of the Women's College Hospital in Toronto.

The study is ongoing, but it is important to notice that cancer is not more common among any race, but that disease is more likely to take an aggressive path in African-American women.