Migrating to another country may lower or raise chances of contracting breast cancer, reveals a new study
A RECENT study carried in the Journal of
the us National Cancer Institute in
Bethesda says that migrating to a country with a high breast cancer incidence
may enhance the risk of dying from the
killer disease for immigrant women
from traditionally low-risk countries.
Enrich V Yliewer of the Australian
National University, Canberra, Australia, and Ken R Smith of the University of
Utaj in Salt Lake City, reveals that
changes in diet, air, water, and stress
altered reproductive habits and lifestyle.
It may cause breast cancer death rates to
spiral among immigrant women living
in high-risk countries like Australia and
Canada. The report also examines
Indian and Pakistani women.
The study provides startling
insights: environmental and lifestyle
factors associated with the new residence, influence breast cancer rate
among immigrants in a way that their
mortality risk either rises or falls
(depending on where they came from),
to the level prevalent among the women
of the adopted country.
Breast cancer death rates among
immigrants to Australia and Canada
rose (or fell, as the case was) to match
that of their local counterparts within 30
years - or less - of migration to those
countries. Although the authors warn
that no precise conclusion can be drawn
on the high-risk to low-risk residence
movement due to the lack of relevant
data, their research revealed that convergence - as the phenomenon of the
merger of death rates is referred to was a constant.
Referring to previous studies on usbased Asian immigrants, the report
showed how the risk of contracting
breast cancer increased with the period
of residence upto 8- 14 years. The overall
picture that emerges is that Asian immigrants in Australia and Canada have an
increased risk of contracting the deadly
tumour. Earlier, the most consistently
found risk factors responsible for the
vast variance in the incidence of breast
cancer all over the world were stated to
be reproductive factors - including
hormonal levels and diet. But the new
study shows that migration is likely to
affect these aspects, too.
Immigrant women may delay their
first childbirth, or childbearing as a
whole for economic, professional or
other reasons. Therefore, immigrant
women may have fewer children
than their sisters in their own country.
This directly affects fertility rates
and the average number of children
born to immigrants. The shift in
fertility rates was found to be consistent
with the convergence in breast cancer
mortality rates.
Also, an examination of 5 Hawaiian
ethnic groups showed that there was a
clear relationship between total fat
intake per day and breast cancer incidence rates. A previous us analysis quoted by the report had revealed that there
was increase in breast cancer among
us-based Japanese women - comfortably explained by an increase in fat
consumption.
Interestingly, the most important
aspect of the new report is that it rein-
forces notions already held by many
specialists, that the risk of breast cancer
is not necessarily something certain
women are born with, but rather, some-
thing which can be influenced by
individual experience.
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