Experts unsure why breast cancer is spiking among Asian American, Pacific Islander women

The latest federal data "shows the rate of new breast cancer diagnoses in Asian American and Pacific Islander women…is rising much faster than that of many other racial and ethnic groups."

That information appears in a story by Philip Reese in last week's San Francisco Chronicle.

Reese reports that the category "once had relatively low rates of diagnosis" and he suggests that experts are befuddled as to why the increase has occurred. 

His article cites the fact that the latest statistics show the trend "is especially sharp" in women in the group under 50 — with the latest figure "surpassing the rate for black and Hispanic women and on a par with the rate for white women, according to age-adjusted data from the National Institutes of Health."

The stats show the increased rate for the younger age group had jumped about 52% from 2000 to 2021, with rates for those 50 to 64 climbing 33% and those 65 and older 43% during that period.

By comparison, the story contends, "the rate for women of all ages, races, and ethnicities" grew by only 3%.

Experts suspect the answer to the "why" is "complex, ranging from cultural shifts to pressure-filled lifestyles," Reese writes.

Dr. Helen Chew

He then quotes Dr. Helen Chew, director of the Clinical Breast Cancer Program at UC Davis Health, as saying that simple answers aren't obvious and that although "it's a real trend," it's "difficult to tease out exactly why" that trend is happening.

"Is it because of many things culturally where they may not want to come in if they see something on heir breast?" she asks.

Scarlett Gomez, PhD

Scarlett Gomez, PhD professor and epidemiologist at UCSF's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, explains that "we're seeing somewhere almost around a 4% per-year increase," then suggests that "one of the hypotheses that we're exploring…is the role of…different sources of stress, different coping styles throughout the lifetime."

Reese's article also notes that "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."

For more information on Asian American and Pacific Islander women, check out Rollercoaster: How a man can survive breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.