Living in U.S. raises cancer risk for Hispanics

Hispanics who move to the U.S. are at greater risk for getting cancer than those living in their countries of origin, whether they're from Mexico, Puerto Rico or Cuba.

Cancer rates of Hispanic immigrants living in Florida were 40 percent higher than those of compatriots in their home countries, University of Miami researchers found. Hispanics had overall lower rates of cancer than non-Hispanics, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

More than 30,000 Hispanics were diagnosed with cancer in Florida from 1999 to 2001, the time period analyzed in the study. Greater smoking rates, different reproductive trends in the U.S., such as a higher age of first birth and increased use of hormone therapy, and better access to certain screening tests, may help explain the discrepancy between the Hispanic immigrants and those in their home countries, the study said.

"Changed lifestyles may be cause for changes in risk," said University of Miami researcher Paulo Pinheiro, the study's lead author.

The study is the first in the U.S. to assess cancer rates for Hispanic subpopulations, Pinheiro said.

Puerto Ricans showed the highest cancer rates of all Hispanic groups in Florida with an average of 574.8 cases per 100,000 men and 412.4 cases per 100,000 women. Mexicans had the lowest rates with an average of 376.8 per 100,000 men and 318 per 100,000 women.

Cubans ranked second behind Puerto Ricans with an average of 557.8 cases per 100,000 men and 380.8 per 100,000 women. Cubans had higher rates among the groups of illnesses linked to tobacco, such as lung, bladder and kidney cancers, the report said.

The findings support research from the 1980s that compared patterns of cancer in Puerto Rico with Hispanics in New York City. Both studies suggest that U.S. Puerto Ricans are more susceptible to most malignancies, including liver cancer in males and cervical cancer in females, according to today's report.