Understanding benign breast disease and subsequent breast cancer in Hispanic white females; a step closer to evidence-based management.

Background While Hispanic white females (HW) have lower incidence of breast cancer (BC) than non-Hispanic white females (NHW), BC risk is unclear for HW females after benign breast disease (BBD). Methods We compared BBD characteristics and subsequent BC risk among HW and NHW females in New Mexico using a population-based collection of benign breast biopsies (1996-2007). BBD was categorized as non-proliferative disease (NPD), proliferative disease without atypia (PDWA), or atypical hyperplasia (AH). BC risk was assessed as absolute risk (AR) using cumulative incidence and relative risk (RR) by comparing the number of BC events in BBDs to non-BBD. Results This study included 3,684 HW and 6,587 NHW females with BBD. HW females had similar proportions of NPD (58.6%vs.54.3%), PDWA (21.4%vs.23.5%), and AH (3.6%vs.3.3%) as NHW. BC risk among all females with BBD was higher than population-based expected rates (RR=1.87) and was similar for HW and NHW subgroups (RR=1.99vs.1.84). As expected, BC risk increased with increasing BBD severity, both overall [RR=1.81 (NPD), 1.85 (PDWA) and 3.10 (AH)] and in the HW and NHW subgroups. Adjusted AR of BC at 5 years also increased with the severity of BBD (HW vs. NHW;NPD: 1.4 vs. 2.1%; PDWA: 1.5 vs. 2.7%; AH: 6 vs. 4.8%). Conclusions We found similar BC RRs and ARs in HW and NHW. Risk counseling should ensure that HW females receive breast cancer clinical management warranted by their similar absolute risks. Impact The present population-based provides evidence for clinical management of HW females with BBD for the prevention of BC.