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Studies in Shanghai Explore Rising Rates of Breast Cancer
Among researchers at Yale, China will continue to command attention long after the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. Over the past decade, the country with the world’s largest population has experienced an upsurge in chronic diseases—and a corresponding rise in interest among public–health scientists and scholars. A recent study co–authored by a Yale School of Public Health researcher studied 570 breast–cancer patients in Shanghai, and found that a family history of breast cancer—as well as cancer of the lung and esophagus—remains a particularly important factor in a population that traditionally has lower rates of such diseases. But researchers also suggest that changing lifestyles and exposure to chemicals appear to be responsible for increasing breast cancer rates in many parts of China. In the industrial city of Shanghai alone, the rate increased by 40 percent from 1975 to 1997. “The findings indicate inherited genetic susceptibility, shared environmental exposure, or both,” said researcher Yawei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Environmental Health Services. The report relied upon data gathered from 1996– 2000 in the Shanghai women’s health study. “In China the instance of cancer is very low, historically, compared to the Western world,” she said. But recently, the incidence of cancers—along with other chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes—has dramatically increased, perhaps due to drastic lifestyle changes in big cities. Zhang cites factors such as a proliferation of fast food outlets and a spike in air pollution. A native of Lanzhou, in central China, Zhang visited Shanghai in 2006. “There were McDonald’s everywhere,” she recalls. The Asian diet with which she grew up was light on meat, with her family given a modest monthly ration. The deluge of fast–food options, often laden with fat and sugar, seems to have swayed many Chinese from their traditional vegetable–centered diet. “Pesticides and chemicals are also pouring into China—herbicides, insecticides,” she said. “That’s why our research focus is there.” On the other hand, Dr. Zhang added, many cancer incidence rates are still lower in China than in western populations. The population’s traditional healthy lifestyle—marked by drinking green tea, eating more soy products and vegetables, and getting plenty of exercise—may account for the lower rates. Zhang says future cancer studies will investigate the prenatal environment as a possible risk factor. Briseis A. Kilfoy, doctoral student in the School of Public Health, also contributed to the Shanghai report. Details of the research were published in the June 2008 issue of Cancer Causes & Control. ~ Story by Melissa Pheterson |
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