New Hope and Understanding for Black and Asian women regarding aspects of Breast Cancer in the UK by Dr Chris Barnes, Bangor Scientific and Educational Consultants, November 2013.  e-mail doctor.barnes@yahoo.co.uk

Dr Barnes' Homepage Link  http://drchrisbarnes.co.uk

 

 

Abstract

Recent news reports have highlighted that a race bias in cancer is costing lives, see for example BBC News Health 12th November 2010 and 'All Breast Cancer Report 2009' . Furthermore prognosis is often worse for black and south Asian women developing breast cancer in the UK and also in parts of the USA. Increased skin pigmentation reduces the body's capacity to synthesise vitamin D3.  In native Africa and South Asia  solar U/V levels are on average at least 3 times greater than in the UK and are hence sufficient for  D3 synthesis in darker  skins.  In the UK there is simply not enough sunlight for darker skinned individuals to realise the full anti-cancer protection of D3. Practices in some Asian women such as wearing of the Burqa will also seriously aggravate this situation for them. Of all the so called 'RF' cancers, Barnes has showed Breast Cancer correlates with lack of vitamin D with p53 involvement, particularly with triple negative breast cancer and because of this and the link with       RF radiation (see Barnes 2013) this will account for the incidence of and prognosis of breast cancers in Black and South Asian Women in the UK..  There is a glimmer of hope for these women. It is proposed that vitamin d3 supplementation and physiotherapy be used as a prophylactic.  Also in future genetic testing will be available.   Those women with p53 aberrations should also avoid RF radiation in so much as it will be possible.  Some countries have used political arguments to ban various items of female Islamic dress.  When women whose custom it is to wear dark or thick clothing and veils become aware of how potentially dangerous their dress code  might be for their health, particularly when living in colder, cloudier,  north European climates they may well decide to make changes on that basis alone.  A simple geographic meta-analysis shows some interesting trends particularly in South East Asia. 

 

Introduction

 

Recent news reports have highlighted that a race bias in cancer is costing lives, see for example  BBC News Health 12th November 2010 [1] and 'All Breast Cancer Report 2009'[2] .   Furthermore prognosis is often worse for black and south Asian women developing breast cancer in the UK and also in parts of the USA.

 

Perhaps because there is less breast cancer in hot sunny countries of the World, immigrants to the UK and USA from those countries or naturalised descendants from immigrants in earlier generations have carried a misconception that they would not be at risk of breast cancer here in the UK.

 

The other most unfortunate  and seemingly unjust fact is that when these women are diagnosed, there are often found to  be more cases of  the so called triple negative form of the disease [1].  Triple negative breast cancers don't have a hormonal link and cannot be treated with hormone therapies. Most triple negative tumours contain p53 mutations, see ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/SubtypesofBreastCancer.html [3].

 

I have showed that increase in breast cancer incidence in the UK is heavily correlated with the number of TV licences issued and possibly therefore with national penetration of TV signals and further have showed that worldwide breast cancer is heavily correlated with wireless technology penetration. I have also showed that certain individuals are more likely to be prone to the cancer promoting effects of RF radiation and these are likely to be those with mutations in the p53 tumour suppressor gene.   This is one key link in the puzzle.  All my papers are to be found at http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk  [4].  I have also shown some association of melatonin with breast cancer in general but since melatonin is a hormone it is presumed it may not be very relevant, if at all, in triple negative breast cancer. 

  

Hypothesis

Increased skin pigmentation reduces the body's capacity to synthesise vitamin D3.  In native Africa and South Asia  solar U/V levels are on average at least 3 times greater than in the UK [5]  and are hence sufficient for  D3 synthesis in darker  skins.  In the UK, I hypothesise there is simply not enough sunlight for darker skinned individuals to realise the full anti-cancer protection of D3.

 

Practices in some Asian women such as wearing of the Burqa and/or Hijab will also seriously aggravate this situation for them irrespective of country.  Particularly black women have a genetic disposition towards triple negative types of breast cancer which will aggravate their situation even further.  These factors combined account for the increased prevalence in and worse prognosis of breast cancer in black and Asian women in the UK.

  

Testing the hypothesis and producing some hope for Black and Asian women and the Vitamin D connection.

 Extensive literature searching has enabled the previous findings of others to be collated and logically operated on here in a different way and to be used together with an extract of a previous world meta- analysis performed recently by the present author in order to give strong support for the above hypothesis and to yield eventual hope for the groups of women affected. 

 

Asian immigrant children and adults in Denmark have been shown to have severely low vitamin D status, see Anderson et al (2007) [6].  There is no reason to suppose there will not be a similar situation in the UK.    A comparison of the Vitamin D status in Saudi married couples showed women to be far more deficient than men,  see Elshafie et  al (2012) [7].  In fact vitamin D deficiency was serious and prevalent in 70 % of Saudi women.  Men had higher sun exposure and more use of light clothes.  This proves the hypothesis that traditional female Islamic dress aggravates the vitamin D deficiency situation. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risk of common cancers, autoimmune diseases and hypertension, see Holick and Chen (2008) [8].  Increased skin pigment reduces the ability of the skin to synthesise vitamin D, see MacLaughlin and Holick (2008).  Normally this would be compensated for by  living nearer the equator where the annual yield  of solar UVB and hence vitamin D is up to 4.8 times that in the UK and Scandanavia, see Moan et al (2007) [9] .

 

Intake of 2000 IU/day of Vitamin D3, and, when possible, very moderate exposure to sunlight, could raise serum 25(OH)D to 52 ng/ml, a level associated with reduction by 50% in incidence of breast cancer, according to observational studies, see Garland et al (2007) [10].  

 

p53 is the most frequently mutated tumour suppressor gene in human neoplasia and encodes a transcriptional co-activator. Identification of p53 target genes is therefore key to understanding the role of p53 in tumorigenesis. To identify novel p53 target genes, Maruyama et al   first used a comparative genomics approach to identify p53 binding sequences conserved in the human and mouse genome. They hypothesized that potential p53 binding sequences that are conserved are more likely to be functional. Using stringent filtering procedures, 32 genes were newly identified as putative p53 targets, and their responsiveness to p53 in human cancer cells was confirmed by reverse transcription-PCR and real-time PCR. Among them, they focused on the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene because vitamin D3 has recently been used for chemoprevention of human tumours.

 

VDR is induced by p53 as well as several other p53 family members, and analysis of chromatin immuno-precipitation showed that p53 protein binds to conserved intronic sequences of the VDR gene in vivo. Introduction of VDR into cells resulted in induction of several genes known to be p53 targets and suppression of colorectal cancer cell growth. In addition, p53 induced VDR target genes in a vitamin D3-dependent manner. Their   in- silico approach is a powerful method for identification of functional p53 binding sites and p53 target genes that are conserved among humans and other organisms and for further understanding the function of p53 in tumorigenesis, see Cancer Res 2006; 66(9): 4574-83) [11] .

 

Of all the so called 'RF' cancers, I have showed Breast Cancer correlates with lack of vitamin D

 

 

 

Type

 

                            RF                           

Low u/v/Vit D

High night light/melatonin def.

 

 

 

 

 

Bowel

 

0.82

0.76

0.59

Brain/nervous

 

0.74

0.64

0.56

Breast

 

0.9

0.75

0.7

Hodgkin Lymp

 

0.81

0.83

0.56

Kidney

 

0.69

0.76

0.75

Leukaemia’s

 

0.74

0.73

0.66

Lung

 

0.58

0.7

0.6

Melanoma

 

0.64

0.28

0.24

Myeloma

 

0.79

0.41

0.39

Prostate

 

0.8

0.64

0.7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See green highlight in table.

 

In the case of  triple negative breast cancer, particularly with p53 involvement   and because of all consideration of all of the  above and because of  the  potential link with            RF radiation  this will account for the incidence of and prognosis of breast cancers in Black and South Asian Women in the UK and vindicates the above hypothesis.  

 

 

Glimmer of hope

The present author foresees a glimmer of hope for these women. It is proposed that vitamin d3 supplementation and phototherapy be used as a prophylactic.  Further eventually genetic testing will be available to all.   Those women with p53 aberrations should also avoid RF radiation in so much as it will be possible.  Some countries have used secular style political arguments to ban various items of female Islamic dress.  When women become aware of how dangerous their traditional dress might be for their health, particularly if living in colder, cloudier, north European climates they may well decide to challenge long held traditions and implement changes on that basis alone. Even in hot, sunny places like Africa women who cover up mainly for religious (Islamic) reasons  may be more at risk from breast cancer as evidenced by  reference [7] above   and by  the a geographic mapping meta-analysis style comparison I have assembled which can be interpreted by  using simple visual inspection, see below:

 

http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk/blbr_files/image002.gifFile:Hijab world2.png

 The notion is brought strikingly alive by looking at the increased incidence of breast cancer  in the parts of Africa and south east Asia where the Hijab is common.  The distribution of the Hijab more or less mirrors the distribution of breast cancer.  Obviously outside these limited areas many other factors come into play such as diet, hormone replacement and RF radiation.    

 

References

1.      Breast cancer risk has risen for South Asian Women ( in Britain)  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22891645

2.      http://www.biosensingtech.co.uk/events/ibst_events/BC/Presentations/DrMonaJeffreys.pdf

3.      http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/SubtypesofBreastCancer.html

4.      http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk

5.      http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/weathercharts?LANG=en&CONT=afri&MAPS=uv

6.      http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v62/n5/full/1602753a.html

7.      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22415335

8.      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18400738

9.      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2206594/

10.  https://www.marineessentials.com/research/assets/resources/32.pdf

11.  Cancer Res 2006; 66(9): 4574-83).  http://huwww.systembio.com/downloads/Maruyama_2006.pdf

12.