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High blood pressure is linked to breast cancer mortality in African-American women:
A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have shown that high blood pressure, or hypertension, is an indicator of mortality among breast cancer patients, especially those who are African Americans, high blood pressure, which represents about 30 percent of survival patients disparity between African-American and white breast cancer.

According to the author of the study, lead, and the UCSF Epidemiology Dejana Braithwaite of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, who is also an affiliate with the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, this study is the first to link between cancer deaths and high blood pressure, and specifically first to show that high blood pressure is an indicator of mortality among African-American breast cancer patients.

"White women are more likely to develop breast cancer, but African-American women are more likely to die from that," said Braithwaite. "We were trying to shed light on the factors that contribute to the disparity in survival between the two groups."

The results are published in the March 2009 printed edition of the International Journal of Cancer, available on the Internet.

The study included 416 African-American and 838 white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1973 and 1986, and following them through 1999. All women in the study patients in the Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. The patients were all residents of San Francisco Bay Area, and was known at the stage of the disease, and of course for the treatment of cancer.

Kaiser Permanente members are representative of the general population for ethnic groups, demographic, and social and economic systems, with the exception of very high and very low ends of the economic spectrum, according to the study. The researchers used data from patient records, and considered more reliable than self-reported data by patients. Kaiser Permanente in the research department of the long collaborated with the UCSF breast cancer research.

The study found that African-American breast cancer patients with the highest crude mortality rate in general, or death from all causes, than whites during the study period: 39.7 percent versus 33.3 percent respectively over a mean follow-up to nine years.

When age, race, and characteristics of the tumor, and treatment of breast cancer was controlled by high blood pressure, 30 per cent of the racial disparity in mortality rates, showed the results of the study.

"High blood pressure led to poor results for patients of African-American white counterparts," said Braithwaite. "Even if you statistically control for the characteristics of the tumor and breast cancer treatment - chemotherapy, surgery and radiation therapy, and hormone therapy - the negative impact of high blood pressure in African-American women would increase the risk of death."

High blood pressure is not part of the Charlson comorbidity index, a tool used widely to provide estimates of survival for patients with a range of participants in the circumstances, or so-called comorbidities. If the results of this study is to validate the population in the more contemporary patient, and research suggests that high blood pressure should be included in the index because of its high predictive value of the results, "said Braithwaite.

According to senior study author Dr. Laura Esserman, director Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center; co-leader, breast cancer program, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in women's health, comorbidities have an enormous impact on the average life expectancy, and thus influence the decisions for the treatment of breast cancer. "We started in an attempt to determine what should be assessed comorbidities for all patients routinely, and discovered that high blood pressure in African Americans is associated with high mortality rate from breast cancer," she said.

In addition, this information may provide clues to the cause of the high mortality rate in African-American women with breast cancer, said Esserman.

"The message is that high blood pressure is a big deal, and affects African Americans more than other ethnic groups, and it affects the survival Assembly. Better management of high blood pressure has potential to improve patient outcomes, particularly among African-American cancer patients breast, "Braithwaite concluded.

The authors of the study with Braithwaite and Jeff Esserman is Belkora; Dan Moore, said Dr. Robert Hiatt of UCSF; Jim Martin Tammemagi, Brock University, Ontario, Canada; Elissa Ozanne, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; de Western, Northern California Cancer Center, Fremont, California; William Satariano, University of California at Berkeley, and Michael Liebman, Windber Research Institute, Windber, Pennsylvania.

The study was funded by the Windber Research Institute; Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Program, and surveillance, epidemiology and end results program of the National Cancer Institute, U.S. Department of Defense, Center of Excellence in the care of breast cancer.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health in all parts of the world through advanced biomedical research and education at the postgraduate level in life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For more information, visit the www.ucsf.edu.

Kaiser Permanente in the Department of Research and undertake, publish and disseminate epidemiological and health services research to improve health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and the community as a whole. It seeks to understand the determinants of disease and well-being and improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Currently, the research division of Kaiser in more than 400 staff working on more than 250 epidemiological and research projects in the field of health services.