|
Is the Answer in Your Genes?
By Wayne A. Young
Less than
three years ago, the University of Chicago’s Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade
revealed that doctors are more likely to diagnose women of African
ancestry from Nigeria, Senegal and North America with a more deadly
form of breast cancer than women of European ancestry. Using race
as a tool to investigate and detect the disease, Olopade’s study
discovered answers that altered the way doctors treat Black women with
breast cancer at home and abroad.
Also in 2005, BiDil became the first drug the United
States government approved specifically for Black people.
Meanwhile, researchers in suburban Chicago concluded that high rates of
hypertension among African-Americans might have more to do with
lifestyle than race.
Using race in the practice of medicine often
reinforces old prejudices about biological differences among
socially-defined people or that scientifically defined races even exist
- - concepts that University of Maryland medical anthropologist
Fatima Jackson finds ludicrous. “Race is a sociological and cultural
construct and is far too ambiguous biologically to be genetic. In
other words, you will not find a single genetic trait within a
so-called race that is found 100% within the
race and 0% outside of the race,” Jackson says.
While using race as a medical tool remains
controversial, Olopade says that the medically important issue is not
race itself but the predisposing genes that follow racial
patterns. The most difficult questions adds Olopade is how much
of the answer is in the genes and how much is in the
environment. “Most diseases have both genetic and environmental
components, and of course the genes and the environment interact with
each other in complicated ways; for instance, certain kinds of stress
may activate certain genes. This is something that we need to
understand for breast cancer and for all complex disorders,” she
continued.
ER-negative
Breast Cancer Tumors - A Middle Passage Survivor
Black women
are less likely to get breast cancer than White women, but are more
likely to get the disease when they are young and are much more likely
to die from it. These facts puzzled Olopade and led to her
groundbreaking Pan-African study.
Her discovery started on one of her biennial
vacations to her birth country, Nigeria. In 1997, she began
working with breast surgeon Dr. Adebarnowo at the University of Ibadan,
her alma mater, by collecting and studying data on Nigerian women with
breast cancer. (Olopade is continuing the study in the United
States to further document the link between Black women at home and
abroad.) The Nigerian study led to three crucial findings:
|
