Hispanic Population: Forgotten Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer High Risk Group?

An estimated 232,670 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,000 will die from the disease in the United States in 2014 [1]. Breast cancer in the US is the most common cancer in women, regardless of race or ethnicity and the second leading cause of death from cancer among White, Black, Asian/ Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native women [2]. Moreover, breast cancer is the most common cause of death from cancer and one of the biggest threats to Hispanic women’s health. According to 2012 statistics from the American Cancer Society, 17,100 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in Hispanic women in the US; this represents 29% of all the cancer diagnoses in Hispanic women for the year. At the same time it is estimated that 2,400 Hispanic women died of the disease the same year [3,4]. This makes breast cancer the deadliest cancer for Hispanic women in the US. During the same year, approximately 2,000 new cases of ovarian cancer were reported in women of Hispanic background; this represents 3% of all new cancer cases in this group. Ovarian cancer resulted in about 1,000 deaths of Hispanic women during 2012 or 6% of the total number of cancer-related deaths for the year [4].