LOS ANGELES: Racial disparity in cancer rates and outcomes may be driven by genetics as well as socioeconomic factors, US researchers said on Sunday. Minorities are much more likely to develop and die from cancer than the general US population, with previous research pointing to lack of health insurance, poverty, cultural barriers, and limited access to good medical care as causes. “What is emerging now is a science of health disparities -- biological factors, genetic factors that can enhance the aggressiveness of cancer are being documented,” said Carlos Casiano, a professor in microbiology and molecular genetics at Loma Linda University in California.

A study presented here at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research found that genes may predispose African American women, who have a higher risk of dying from breast cancer, to more aggressive breast cancer than white women.Researchers at Windber Research Institute in Pennsylvania and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., said their preliminary research identified two genes found in normal breast tissue that may promote breast cell growth in African Americans.Using technology to examine large numbers of genes at once, researchers examined samples of healthy breast tissues from 26 black women and 22 white women. They found that two genes were more active in African American women.—Reuters