Researchers worked on a series of genetic analysis and identified genetic differences in normal breast tissue among several racial groups.

Baumbach's research group is observing a multi-ethnic cohort of patients with triple-negative breast cancer, including 10 blacks, 10 Hispanics and 10 non-Hispanic whites. Study samples were marked by pathology as normal vs. tumor tissue. They were then analyzed for RNA isolation, cDNA preparation and hybridization of tumor/normal cDNAs and compared to a breast cancer focused gene expression array.
Results showed that the number of genes related to the DNA repair pathway, a known biology in cancer, was expressed differently across ethnicities. In a set of 10 DNA repair/cell cycle genes, the direction of change was the same for all three ethnic groups, but the level of change differed.
Source-Eurekalert