Joshi Shriya, Garlapati Chakravarthy, Aneja Ritu
Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
Department of Clinical and Diagnostics Sciences, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
Cancers (Basel). 2022 Apr 9;14(8):1903. doi: 10.3390/cancers14081903.
Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Despite advancements in BC screening, prevention, and treatment, BC incidence and mortality remain high among African American (AA) women. Compared with European American (EA) women, AA women tend to be diagnosed with more advanced and aggressive tumors and exhibit worse survival outcomes. Most studies investigating the determinants of racial disparities in BC have focused on genetic factors associated with African ancestry. However, various environmental and social stressors over an individual's life course can also shape racial stratification in BC. These social and environmental exposures result in long-term changes in gene expression mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetics is often portrayed as an intersection of socially patterned stress and genetic expression. The enduring nature of epigenetic changes makes them suitable for studying the effects of different environmental exposures over an individual's life course on gene expression. The role of differential social and environmental exposures in racial disparities in BC suggests varied epigenetic profiles or signatures associated with specific BC subtypes in AA and EA women. These epigenetic profiles in EA and AA women could be used as biomarkers for early BC diagnosis and disease prognosis and may prove valuable for the development of targeted therapies for BC. This review article discusses the current state of knowledge regarding epigenetic differences between AA and EA women with BC. We also discuss the role of socio-environmental factors, including psychosocial stress, environmental toxicants, and dietary factors, in delineating the different epigenetic profiles in AA and EA patients with BC.
乳腺癌（BC）是女性中最常被诊断出的癌症。尽管在乳腺癌筛查、预防和治疗方面取得了进展，但非裔美国（AA）女性的乳腺癌发病率和死亡率仍然很高。与欧美（EA）女性相比，AA女性往往被诊断出患有更晚期、更具侵袭性的肿瘤，并且生存结果更差。大多数研究乳腺癌种族差异决定因素的研究都集中在与非洲血统相关的遗传因素上。然而，个体生命历程中的各种环境和社会压力因素也会影响乳腺癌的种族分层。这些社会和环境暴露会导致由表观遗传机制介导的基因表达长期变化。表观遗传学通常被描述为社会模式化压力与基因表达的交叉点。表观遗传变化的持久性使其适合研究个体生命历程中不同环境暴露对基因表达的影响。不同的社会和环境暴露在乳腺癌种族差异中的作用表明，AA和EA女性中与特定乳腺癌亚型相关的表观遗传特征或特征存在差异。EA和AA女性的这些表观遗传特征可作为乳腺癌早期诊断和疾病预后的生物标志物，可能对开发乳腺癌靶向治疗具有重要价值。这篇综述文章讨论了关于患有乳腺癌的AA和EA女性之间表观遗传差异的当前知识状态。我们还讨论了社会环境因素，包括心理社会压力、环境毒物和饮食因素，在描绘患有乳腺癌的AA和EA患者不同表观遗传特征方面的作用。
