For women around the world, the risk of developing breast cancer varies at least five times, but ethnic differences alone cannot satisfactorily explain these differences. It is the most common malignancy in women in all "developed" countries and the distribution pattern seems to correlate with "affluence". The incidence rates are lowest in China, Japan and Africa (even when we take into consideration lower standards of health care and diagnostic procedures as well as shorter life expectancy), higher among Asian-American and African-American women and highest among Caucasians, both in Europe and the US. However, the migration of populations alters their cancer risk after moving in a new location after an as yet undefined length of time. Since migrants carry their genes to their new environment, this is a strong argument against the dominance of genetic determinants.
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