There is still much we need to learn about how breast cancer develops, who is most at risk, why, and when. But researchers in the United Kingdom have recently advanced our knowledge by comparing breast cancer diagnoses among people of different races.

The researchers learned that, on average, black women in the study were diagnosed 21 years younger than were white women. That is, the average age of diagnosis for black women was 46, compared to 67 for white women. That's pretty significant.

The study also found that survival was poorer among black women, even when their tumors were small. The authors hypothesize that these different survival times were due to the tendency of black women in general to get more aggressive tumors, which would automatically confer on black women a much gloomier prognosis.

These onset ages and survival times are comparable to those for black women in the United States, where death rates from breast cancer are also higher among African-American women. However, the prevailing wisdom up to now has been that this higher mortality rate is due to cultural differences related to delays in diagnosis, and not to biological or genetic factors. This new research information from the U.K will probably trigger additional studies here in the U.S. of breast cancer diagnoses among women of different ethnic and racial groups.

Are you surprised to learn there are racial differences in the numbers of deaths from breast cancer? Care to make any guesses why? Do you think we should begin screening African-American women sooner than we do Caucasian women? There is a lot to think about and consider here.