The lower breast cancer incidence seen in Asian American women may be caused by a lower screening mammography rate in this group, according to a study of nearly 8,000 women.
Researchers found that Asian Americans were one-third less likely to have had a mammogram within the past two years compared with White women. This was after controlling for education, insurance, family income, marital status, and country of birth.
“This was surprising in that, while the disparities among African American versus white women is well-known, this was a new finding for us,” said researcher Anees Chagpar, MD, from Yale University.
“If Asians had a disproportionately lower rate of mammography use, their low incidence rate may not be something to celebrate,” the researchers wrote. “Rather, this may be a call to educate women in this population so as to improve early detection rates.”
- See “Lower breast cancer incidence in Asian women not necessarily good” by Amerigo Allegretto on the AuntMinnie website (April 29, 2022)
- See the abstract of the scientific paper “Disparities in Breast Cancer Screening Between Caucasian and Asian American Women” by Ashwini Paranjpe et al.
