{"id":1325,"date":"2024-09-07T11:46:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T11:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/07\/breast-cancer-rises-among-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-women\/"},"modified":"2024-09-07T11:46:41","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T11:46:41","slug":"breast-cancer-rises-among-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/07\/breast-cancer-rises-among-asian-american-and-pacific-islander-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast cancer rises among Asian American and Pacific Islander women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christina Kashiwada was traveling for work during the summer of 2018 when she noticed a small, itchy lump in her left breast. <\/p>\n

She thought little of it at first. She did routine self-checks and kept up with medical appointments. But a relative urged her to get a mammogram. She took the advice and learned she had stage 3 breast cancer, a revelation that stunned her. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 36 years old, right?\u201d said Kashiwada, a civil engineer in Sacramento, California. \u201cNo one\u2019s thinking about cancer.\u201d <\/p>\n

About 11,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and about 1,500 died. The latest federal data shows the rate of new breast cancer diagnoses in Asian American and Pacific Islander women \u2014 a group that once had relatively low rates of diagnosis \u2014 is rising much faster than that of many other racial and ethnic groups. The trend is especially sharp among young women such as Kashiwada. <\/p>\n

About 55 of every 100,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50 were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, surpassing the rate for Black and Hispanic women and on par with the rate for white women, according to age-adjusted data from the National Institutes of Health. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races but are grouped separately in this data.) <\/p>\n

The rate of new breast cancer cases among Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50 grew by about 52% from 2000 through 2021. Rates for AAPI women 50 to 64 grew 33% and rates for AAPI women 65 and older grew by 43% during that period. By comparison, the rate for women of all ages, races, and ethnicities grew by 3%. <\/p>\n

Researchers have picked up on this trend and are racing to find out why it is occuring within this ethnically diverse group. They suspect the answer is complex, ranging from cultural shifts to pressure-filled lifestyles \u2014 yet they concede it remains a mystery and difficult for patients and their families to discuss because of cultural differences. <\/p>\n

Helen Chew, director of the Clinical Breast Cancer Program at UC Davis Health, said the Asian American diaspora is so broad and diverse that simple explanations for the increase in breast cancer aren\u2019t obvious. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real trend,\u201d Chew said, adding that \u201cit is just difficult to tease out exactly why it is. Is it because we\u2019re seeing an influx of people who have less access to care? Is it because of many things culturally where they may not want to come in if they see something on their breast?\u201d <\/p>\n

There\u2019s urgency to solve this mystery because it\u2019s costing lives. While women in most ethnic and racial groups are experiencing sharp declines in breast cancer death rates, about 12 of every 100,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander women of any age died from breast cancer in 2023, essentially the same death rate as in 2000, according to age-adjusted, provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The breast cancer death rate among all women during that period dropped 30%. <\/p>\n

The CDC does not break out breast cancer death rates for many different groups of Asian American women, such as those of Chinese or Korean descent. It has, though, begun distinguishing between Asian American women and Pacific Islander women. <\/p>\n

Nearly 9,000 Asian American women died from breast cancer from 2018 through 2023, compared with about 500 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women. However, breast cancer death rates were 116% higher among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women than among Asian American women during that period. <\/p>\n

Rates of pancreatic, thyroid, colon, and endometrial cancer, along with non-Hodgkin lymphoma rates, have also recently risen significantly among Asian American and Pacific Islander women under 50, NIH data show. Yet breast cancer is much more common among young AAPI women than any of those other types of cancer \u2014 especially concerning because young women are more likely to face more aggressive forms of the disease, with high mortality rates. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing somewhere almost around a 4% per-year increase,\u201d said Scarlett Gomez, a professor and epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco\u2019s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing even more than the 4% per-year increase in Asian\/Pacific Islander women less than age 50.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gomez is a lead investigator on a large study exploring the causes of cancer in Asian Americans. She said there is not yet enough research to know what is causing the recent spike in breast cancer. The answer may involve multiple risk factors over a long period of time. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the hypotheses that we\u2019re exploring there is the role of stress,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking all sorts of questions about different sources of stress, different coping styles throughout the lifetime.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely not just that there\u2019s more screening. \u201cWe looked at trends by stage at diagnosis and we are seeing similar rates of increase across all stages of disease,\u201d Gomez said. <\/p>\n

Veronica Setiawan, a professor and epidemiologist at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said the trend may be related to Asian immigrants adopting some lifestyles that put them at higher risk. Setiawan is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed a few years ago at the age of 49. <\/p>\n

\u201cAsian women, American women, they become more westernized so they have their puberty younger now \u2014 having earlier age at [the first menstrual cycle] is associated with increased risk,\u201d said Setiawan, who is working with Gomez on the cancer study. \u201cMaybe giving birth later, we delay childbearing, we don\u2019t breastfeed \u2014 those are all associated with breast cancer risks.\u201d <\/p>\n

Moon Chen, a professor at the University of California-Davis and an expert on cancer health disparities, added that only a tiny fraction of NIH funding is devoted to researching cancer among Asian Americans. <\/p>\n

Whatever its cause, the trend has created years of anguish for many patients. <\/p>\n

Kashiwada underwent a mastectomy following her breast cancer diagnosis. During surgery, doctors at UC Davis Health discovered the cancer had spread to lymph nodes in her underarm. She underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and 20 sessions of radiation treatment. <\/p>\n

Throughout her treatments, Kashiwada kept her ordeal a secret from her grandmother, who had helped raise her. Her grandmother never knew about the diagnosis. \u201cI didn\u2019t want her to worry about me or add stress to her,\u201d Kashiwada said. \u201cShe just would probably never sleep if she knew that was happening. It was very important to me to protect her.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kashiwada moved in with her parents. Her mom took a leave from work to help take care of her. <\/p>\n

Kashiwada\u2019s two young children, who were 3 and 6 at the time, stayed with their dad so she could focus on her recovery. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids would come over after school,\u201d she said. \u201cMy dad would pick them up and bring them over to see me almost every day while their dad was at work.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kashiwada spent months regaining strength after the radiation treatments. She returned to work but with a doctor\u2019s instruction to avoid lifting heavy objects. <\/p>\n

Kashiwada had her final reconstructive surgery a few weeks before covid lockdowns began in 2020. But her treatment was not finished. <\/p>\n

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