Over the last decade, breast cancer rates have risen for African American women, who suffer a 40 percent higher breast cancer mortality than white women. Despite this burden, African American women are under-represented in research examining breast cancer risk.
Researchers wanted to look at breast tissue from African American women to better understand this disparity. They already knew that tissue-based markers are ideal to develop risk models because these markers reflect variables such as genetics, behavioral factors and environment.
For this study, researchers used tissue from breast biopsies of African American women as well as "normal" tissue from African American women at the Komen Tissue Bank. The "normal" tissue from KTB is unique because donors' tissue was not collected from medical procedures but rather from volunteers contributing their healthy tissue to the bank.