--- title: Breast Cancer: Some Latinas At Lower Risk description: Some Latina women have a gene that significantly lowers the risk of getting breast cancer, according to a new study. canonical: https://time.com/3528560/latina-breast-cancer/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T16:52:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:55:04.603Z article:section: Health og:title: Breast Cancer: Some Latinas At Lower Risk og:description: Some Latina women have a gene that significantly lowers the risk of getting breast cancer, according to a new study. og:url: https://time.com/3528560/latina-breast-cancer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breast Cancer: Some Latinas At Lower Risk twitter:description: Some Latina women have a gene that significantly lowers the risk of getting breast cancer, according to a new study. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Study Links Latina Women With Gene That Lowers Breast Cancer Risk  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 21, 2014 4:52 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 21, 2014 4:52 PM UTC Some Latina women have a gene that significantly lowers the risk of getting breast cancer, according to a new [study](http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/10/119591/genetic-variant-protects-some-latina-women-breast-cancer)_._ The study, published in the journal [_Nature Communications_](http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/10/119591/genetic-variant-protects-some-latina-women-breast-cancer)_,_ suggests that the gene is most effective at protecting against the variations of the disease that lead to the worst prognosis. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco reported that 20% of self-identified Latinas had one copy of the gene, which led to 40% reduced risk of breast cancer. The 1% of Latinas who had two copies of the gene were about 80% less likely to have breast cancer, the study found. Other medical research has shown that Latina women have lower a incidence of breast cancer than women with other backgrounds, but it wasn’t clear from what caused the disparity. “After our earliest studies, we thought there might be a genetic variant that led to increased risk in European populations,” said UCSF professor and study author Elad Ziv in a press release. “But what this latest work shows is that instead there is a protective variant in Native American and Latina populations.” Mammograms conducted for the study showed that women with the genetic variation had less dense breast tissue, which is thought to correlate with reduced breast cancer risk. “We have detected something that is definitely relevant to the health of Latinas,” said Laura Fejerman, UCSF assistant professor and an author of the study, in a press release. “As a Latina myself, I am gratified that there are representatives of that population directly involved in research that concerns them.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3528560/latina-breast-cancer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3528560/latina-breast-cancer/"},"headline":"Study Links Latina Women With Gene That Lowers Breast Cancer Risk","datePublished":"2014-10-21T16:52:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:55:04.603Z","description":"Some Latina women have a gene that significantly lowers the risk of getting breast cancer, according to a new study.","url":"https://time.com/3528560/latina-breast-cancer/","keywords":["Cancer","Breast Cancer","Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cancer/","name":"Cancer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3528560/latina-breast-cancer/","name":"Study Links Latina Women With Gene That Lowers Breast Cancer Risk"}}]}] ```