Genetic ancestry is related to potential sources of breast cancer health disparities among Colombian women

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 6; p. e0306037
• Main Authors: Rey-Vargas, Laura, Bejarano-Rivera, Lina María, Serrano-Gómez, Silvia J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 27.06.2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Analysis; Beneficiaries; Biology and Life Sciences; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology; Breast Neoplasms - ethnology; Breast Neoplasms - genetics; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cancer; Colombia - epidemiology; Development and progression; Female; Genetic aspects; Health aspects; Health disparities; Health insurance; Health services; Health Status Disparities; Hispanic Americans; Households; Humans; Low income groups; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Mortality; Oncology, Experimental; Pacific Islander people; Patients; People and Places; Population genetics; Population studies; Social factors; Social Sciences; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Software; Tumors; Variables; White People - genetics; Women; Womens health; Colombia; United States > US; Alaska
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306037

Breast cancer health disparities are linked to clinical-pathological determinants, socioeconomic inequities, and biological factors such as genetic ancestry. These factors collectively interact in complex ways, influencing disease behavior, especially among highly admixed populations like Colombians. In this study, we assessed contributing factors to breast cancer health disparities according to genetic ancestry in Colombian patients from a national cancer reference center. We collected non-tumoral paraffin embedded (FFPE) blocks from 361 women diagnosed with breast cancer at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to estimate genetic ancestry using a 106-ancestry informative marker (AIM) panel. Differences in European, Indigenous American (IA) and African ancestry fractions were analyzed according to potential sources of breast cancer health disparities, like etiology, tumor-biology, treatment administration, and socioeconomic-related factors using a Kruskal-Wallis test. Our analysis revealed a significantly higher IA ancestry among overweight patients with larger tumors and those covered by a subsidized health insurance. Conversely, we found a significantly higher European ancestry among patients with smaller tumors, residing in middle-income households, and affiliated to the contributory health regime, whereas a higher median of African ancestry was observed among patients with either a clinical, pathological, or stable response to neoadjuvant treatment. Altogether, our results suggest that the genetic legacy among Colombian patients, measured as genetic ancestry fractions, may be reflected in many of the clinical-pathological variables and socioeconomic factors that end up contributing to health disparities for this disease.