Women of African descent have a lower incidence of breast cancer than their white
counterparts; however, the overall age-adjusted breast cancer mortality rates are higher.
They also present at a younger age, and have more advanced disease that exhibits poor
prognostic features including significantly larger tumors of higher grade, higher rates of
estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor negativity and a higher rate of p53 mutations
and HRAS1 proto-oncogene expression, all of which confer a poor prognosis. While there …