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Asian women who immigrate to U.S. may have higher breast cancer risk, research finds

Feb. 20, 2019, 11:39 PM GMT

By Charles Lam

Asian women who immigrate to the United States may have a higher risk of breast cancer than those born here, new preliminary research has found, an apparent shift from historical norms of U.S. women having higher breast cancer rates compared to the rest of the world.

The new study, published online last week in the medical journal Preventing Chronic Disease, found that Asian women who had immigrated to the United States and spent more than half their lives in the U.S.were on average three times as likely to have breast cancer compared to Asian-American women who were born in the U.S. Those who immigrated and spent less than 50 percent of their lives in the U.S. were on average 2.46 times more likely to have breast cancer.

According to study co-author Brittany Morey, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside School of Public Policy, that information was surprising because it was the opposite finding of past studies.

Earlier research, which examined data from the ‘70s to the early 2000s,has found that women in the U.S. generally had higher rates of breast cancer than demographically comparable women abroad.

The shift could be caused by the “effects of globalization and economic development,” researchers hypothesized, including increased access to breast cancer screenings, later childbirth, decreased breastfeeding and sedentary lifestyles, which are all associated with a higher risk of breast cancer.

The study, which takes into account age and country of origin, examined a data set of women in the San Francisco Bay Area recruited between March 2013 and October 2014 that yielded a sample of 570.

Further research is needed to corroborate the study’s findings especially outside of the Bay Area, Morey told NBC News.

"If true ... we need to focus on treating breast cancer in this population, and there needs to be a focus on services for foreign-born Asian-American women," Morey said, citing language and cultural needs, including culturally sensitive ways to talk about cancer.

“Interventions are needed to increase breast cancer screening among both immigrant and U.S.-born Asian-American women to prevent breast cancer from progressing,” the study said.

Recent research has found that breast cancer rates have increased for Asian-American women, even as they remain stable in the U.S. overall.

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Charles Lam is an editor at NBCNews.com.

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Japan's Koji Yakusho to Receive Excellence in Asian Cinema Award

AWARDS

1:20 AM PST 2/20/2019 by Gavin J. Blair

Japanese actor Koji Yakusho will be given the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award, the Asian Film Awards Academy (AFAA) announced Wednesday.

"I am very honored to receive the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award," said Yakusho. "It has been 40 years since I started my acting career, and it’s a miracle that I am still able to pursue this profession. I am also indebted to all the people who have inspired me throughout my life."

"Over his prolific career, Mr. Yakusho has made an indelible impression on audiences and his professional peers around the world," said Wilfred Wong, chair of AFAA and the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society. "His talent for playing a wide variety of characters in films and TV in Japan and overseas testify to his commitment and dedication to the art and craft of acting."

The veteran actor has won more than 20 awards playing a wide range of roles during his four-decade career and was nominated for best actor at the Japan Academy Prize for seven years consecutively during the 1990s.

After making his name on television playing a samurai warlord in public broadcaster NHK's yearlong historical "Taiga" drama Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1983, he has gone on to be cast by nearly every leading Japanese director, including Juzo Itami in Tampopo in 1986.

Yakusho found international recognition in the 1990s with Masayuki Suo's Shall We Dance? in a role reprised by Richard Gere in the Hollywood remake, as well as Cannes' Palme d'Or winner The Eel by Shohei Imamura. In the mid-2000s he appeared in two international productions: Memoirs of a Geisha and Babel.

He played the accused in 2017's The Third Murder, by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters) and a tough detective from an organized crime squad in The Blood of Wolves by Kazuya Shiraishi last year. The Blood of Wolves has been nominated in 12 categories for next month's Japan Academy awards, behind only Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters with 13. Yakusho is also nominated for best actor for the film at the Asian Film Awards, his third nomination in the category.

A retrospective of Yakusho's work was screened at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival.

The AFAA also announced that South Korean vocalist, songwriter and actor Jae-joong Kim will receive the Next Generation Award.