Breast Cancer News:

Gene That May Spur Breast Cancer Found More Often in Blacks

A gene that researchers suspect helps spur breast cancer may be active more often in the tumors of African Americans than in white women, according to a report in the journal Breast Cancer Research.

Dr. Patricia Berg of George Washington University Medical Center, who first discovered that the BP1 gene was active in many patients with a type of leukemia, tested breast tissue from seven women without cancer and breast cancer tissue from 46 women.

She reported that that BP1 was active in only one sample out of seven for women without breast cancer. But she found BP1 active in 89 percent of the tumors from African American women, and in 57 percent of the tumors from white women.

Berg also reported BP1 was active in all of the tumors that are hard to treat because they are not affected by estrogen, but only active in three-quarters of estrogen-sensitive tumors.

While the results of Berg's study are viewed as intriguing, researchers emphasized that a larger study is needed to what -- if any -- role BP1 plays in breast cancer and its development.

Source: Breast Cancer Week of June 1, 2003