Medical News Today: Parabens may increase breast cancer risk in Black women
UC expert comments on implications of recent study
Black women in the United States are 39% more likely to die from breast cancer compared to white women and are more likely to develop breast cancer under the age of 40.
A recent study conducted by researchers at City of Hope in Los Angeles found that compounds called parabens, which are used as preservatives in hair and personal care products, increased the growth of a Black breast cancer cell line but did not increase growth in a white breast cancer cell line.
Xiaoting Zhang, PhD, professor and Thomas Boat Endowed Chair in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Cancer Biology, director of the Breast Cancer Research Program and member of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, was not involved in the study but commented on it for Medical News Today.
Zhang said the study findings were interesting and suggest that at least part of the reason why parabens affect cancer cells differently is due to genetic or epigenetic differences.
"It will be highly critical to further study its effect not only in cultured breast cancer cells but also in animal models and eventually in humans,” Zhang said.
Read the Medical News Today story.
Featured photo at top of Dr. Zhang at microscope. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand
Related Stories
High Court offers protections for therapy speech
April 5, 2026
Jennifer Bard, a professor in the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law and the UC Department of Internal Medicine, spoke with journalists about the US Supreme Court ruling granting first amendment protections for speech offered during therapy sessions.
Scientists discover how snakes stand upright without limbs
April 3, 2026
Smithsonian magazine highlights a study co-authored by UC Professor Bruce Jayne, an expert in snake locomotion, about how snakes stand upright without arms or legs.
On track: Hoffman Honors Scholar studies public transit
April 2, 2026
Public transit is where Zane Sawyer’s lifelong passion for travel meets his commitment to making an impact. The University of Cincinnati first-year geography major in the College of Arts & Sciences and member of the second cohort of Hoffman Honors Scholars (HHS) has hit the ground running, designing a research project intended to capture both how public transit works and how its users perceive it.