The statistics I mentioned are basically on the incidence of triple-negative breast cancer, not the biomarkers. The incidence of triple-negative breast cancer ranges from 40% to 70% in West Africa; 20% to 25% in the Caribbean, which is relatively homogeneously Black; and then, similarly, 20% to 22% in the U.S. However, in white women the incidence of triple-negative breast cancer is only 10%.
Based on the research I'm doing in my lab, we think there are unique genetic mutations or epigenetic marks on our genomes that are predisposing Black women to this aggressive breast cancer subtype compared to white women and other women. However, what I also want to point out, which we didn't get to talk about much today, is that studies in the U.S. have found that racism is a social determinant of health. There are studies and researchers in the U.S. examining this at the molecular and genetic level, and what they have found is that continued perpetual racism can lead to epigenetic changes on our genomes. They are not mutating the genes; you can think of these epigenetic marks as a tag or tattoo that goes on the genome. That slight modification is not changing the DNA sequence, but it's changing the way our genes are then expressed. Some genes could be turned off when they should be on, or they are turned on when they should be off.
That's a booming field of research that's growing, but we do need to identify those biomarkers and epigenetic marks in populations that have been historically traumatized and oppressed by racism, because that would shed significant light on why we, including me as a Black woman, have or may be predisposed to these very aggressive types of cancer.