Scientists have discovered that Hispanic women are more likely than patients of other ethnic or racial(ized) groups to have a cancer-causing mutation on a certain gene. Tell us why it sucks to be brown, Dr. Brown:

“This is brand-new and very important in understanding the different racial groups in terms of their risk of breast cancer,” said Dr. Powel Brown, who runs Baylor College of Medicine’s breast cancer genetic clinic. “We will use this information in helping us decide who should undergo genetic testing,” said Brown, who was not involved with the study.

Researchers working with breast cancer susceptible genes found mutations in the gene BRCA1, which confer high risks of breast and ovarian cancer in 3.5 percent of Hispanic patients compared with 2.2 percent of white patients and 1.3 percent of non-Hispanic black patients. Only .5 percent of patients of Asian descent had the gene mutation.

We can eat lots and lots of tomatoes, stay away from deep fried carcinogens, drink green tea so that we have to urinate every half an hour and we’re probs going to get cancer anyway because we’re some sort of genetic mutants. Poor mutants at that:

Genetic testing sometimes is recommended for women with a family history of breast cancer, particularly when relatives are diagnosed at an early age, since that’s a strong indicator of a genetic influence. Having the mutation, however, does not mean a woman will develop cancer.

Minorities are less likely than whites to use genetic testing, studies show.

Could one reason for this possibly be cost?:

One reason is cost, said Melissa Bondy, professor of epidemiology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, who studies breast cancer in minority populations.

Testing for the two mutations is about $3,000, Bondy said.

“You’re talking about a lot of money out of my pocket to know, well, do I have the breast cancer gene in my family or not?,” she said.

Shit, yeah. We’d rather use that money for something useful. Like, say, buying new, plastic boobs that won’t make us look like mutants at all.

Report: Hispanic women more likely to have cancer-causing gene mutation [Chron]