Filipina immigrants in Canada get breast cancer at an earlier age than others — study

DALY CITY, California – Filipino women who move to Canada tend to get breast cancer at a younger age than women from other parts of East Asia or Caucasians, according to a recent study.

The study titled “Breast Cancer Amongst Filipino Migrants: A Review of the Literature and Ten-Year

Institutional Analysis” found they were also more likely to be diagnosed with a more aggressive form of cancer and to undergo a mastectomy.

Of the 782 patients studied at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, which has a sizeable Filipino patient population, Filipino newcomers to Canada were diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age (53), compared with other East Asians (55) and Caucasians (58), the study showed.

“The Canadian Filipino community is a growing community and this new research raises the question of whether our current Canadian guidelines calling for mammograms starting at age 50 are meeting specific cultural needs of different ethnicities when it is known that it takes years for a breast cancer to develop,” said Dr. Jory Simpson, a surgical oncologist in the CIBC Breast Centre of St. Michael’s and one of the study’s three authors.

The study also showed that 22.6 percent of Filipinos tested positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, a protein that promotes the growth of cancer cells. In a statement, Simpson said this was “disproportionately high” compared with East Asians (14.4 percent) and Caucasians (15.1 percent).

At least 35 percent of Filipino women with the same size tumors as other groups underwent mastectomies, higher than Caucasians at 22.5 percent and East Asians at 28.3 percent, the study further said.

“As Canada continues to ethnically diversify this new research only highlights and magnifies the need to take on a more personalized approach to preventing and treating breast cancer,” said Simpson, who explained that women of different ethnic origins have different risks of developing breast cancer.

When women from an area of low incidence of breast cancer to an area of high incidence, their risk increases, possibly due to new environmental influences such as diet interacting with pre-existing genetics. Simpson said he believes his study – albeit a small sample at one hospital – is the first to look at the incidence of breast cancer in Filipino immigrants to Canada.

According to Statistics Canada, Filipinos are the third largest non-European ethnic group in the country. Of the 328,000 people of Filipino origin who live in Canada, many are young women.

“Many questions remain such as: how do we increase awareness about the benefits of screening mammography in the Filipino community? Should screening start at an earlier age? And finally, how do we ensure that the Filipino women are getting the adequate treatment given the aggressive nature of their breast cancer? Addressing these disparities should be viewed as a priority in breast cancer research,” the study noted.