Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010;12(6):R99.
doi: 10.1186/bcr2780. Epub 2010 Nov 19.

Lifetime risks of specific breast cancer subtypes among women in four racial/ethnic groups

Allison W Kurian  1 , Kari Fish, Sarah J Shema, Christina A Clarke
Affiliations

Lifetime risks of specific breast cancer subtypes among women in four racial/ethnic groups

Allison W Kurian et al. Breast Cancer Res. 2010.

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer comprises clinically distinct subtypes, but most risk statistics consider breast cancer only as a single entity. To estimate subtype-specific lifetime breast cancer risks, we took advantage of population-based data for which information regarding tumor expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu (HER2) was newly available.

Methods: We included women whose breast cancer was diagnosed in the state of California from 2006 to 2007 and was reported to the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program (N = 40,936). We calculated absolute lifetime and age-specific probabilities (percent, 95% confidence interval) of developing breast cancer subtypes defined by ER, PR, and HER2 status - luminal (ER and/or PR-positive, HER2-negative), HER2-positive (ER and PR-positive or negative, HER2-positive), and triple-negative (ER-negative, PR-negative, and HER2-negative) - separately for white, black, Hispanic, and Asian women.

Results: The luminal breast cancer subtype predominates across racial/ethnic groups, with lifetime risk lowest in Hispanic women (4.60%, 4.41-4.80%) and highest in white women (8.10%, 7.94-8.20%). HER2-positive breast cancer varies less by race (1.56-1.91%). Lifetime risk of triple-negative breast cancer is highest in black women (1.98%, 1.80-2.17%), compared to 0.77% (0.67-0.88%) for Asians, 1.04% (0.96-1.13%) for Hispanics and 1.25% (1.20-1.30%) for whites. Across racial/ethnic groups, nearly half of all luminal breast cancers occur after age 70.

Conclusions: These absolute risk estimates may inform health policy and resource planning across diverse populations, and can help patients and physicians weigh the probabilities of developing specific breast cancer subtypes against competing health risks.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age-specific incidence of breast cancer. Incidence is expressed as rates per 100,000 by age (in years) for subtypes - luminal (ER- or PR-positive or both and HER2-negative), HER2-positive (ER- and PR-positive or -negative and HER2-positive), and triple-negative (ER-negative, PR-negative, and HER2-negative) - and for racial/ethnic groups: (a) whites, (b) blacks, (c) Hispanics, and (d) Asians. ER, estrogen receptor; HER2, Her2/neu; PR, progesterone receptor.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of breast cancer subtypes by age. Distribution is expressed as a percentage, and age is expressed in years. Subtypes are defined as (a) luminal (ER- or PR-positive or both and HER2-negative), (b) HER2-positive (ER- and PR-positive or -negative and HER2-positive), and (c) triple-negative (ER-negative, PR-negative, and HER2-negative). ER, estrogen receptor; HER2, Her2/neu; PR, progesterone receptor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fan C, Oh DS, Wessels L, Weigelt B, Nuyten DS, Nobel AB, van't Veer LJ, Perou CM. Concordance among gene-expression-based predictors for breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:560–569. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa052933. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Perou CM, Jeffrey SS, van de Rijn M, Rees CA, Eisen MB, Ross DT, Pergamenschikov A, Williams CF, Zhu SX, Lee JC, Lashkari D, Shalon D, Brown PO, Botstein D. Distinctive gene expression patterns in human mammary epithelial cells and breast cancers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1999;96:9212–9217. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.16.9212. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Perou CM, Sorlie T, Eisen MB, van de Rijn M, Jeffrey SS, Rees CA, Pollack JR, Ross DT, Johnsen H, Akslen LA, Fluge O, Pergamenschikov A, Williams C, Zhu SX, Lonning PE, Borresen-Dale AL, Brown PO, Botstein D. Molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature. 2000;406:747–752. doi: 10.1038/35021093. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sorlie T, Tibshirani R, Parker J, Hastie T, Marron JS, Nobel A, Deng S, Johnsen H, Pesich R, Geisler S, Demeter J, Perou CM, Lonning PE, Brown PO, Borresen-Dale AL, Botstein D. Repeated observation of breast tumor subtypes in independent gene expression data sets. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2003;100:8418–8423. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0932692100. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carey LA, Perou CM, Livasy CA, Dressler LG, Cowan D, Conway K, Karaca G, Troester MA, Tse CK, Edmiston S, Deming SL, Geradts J, Cheang MC, Nielsen TO, Moorman PG, Earp HS, Millikan RC. Race, breast cancer subtypes, and survival in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. JAMA. 2006;295:2492–2502. doi: 10.1001/jama.295.21.2492. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms