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King's Population Health Institute ;

Into the Archive - Triple negative breast cancer and ethnicities in a London population

A Catalyst for Change

15 October 2025

Population health is a way to understand health outcomes and disparities in a group of people. It examines how social, economic, and environmental factors impact health and identifies interventions or policies to improve health for all. Here at King’s, experts have been studying population health for over half a century. ‘Into the Archive’ aims to amplify experts, past and present, at King’s who have worked to revolutionise health and healthcare.

Triple negative breast cancer and ethnicities in a London population study by Professor Henrik Møller 

The 2012 study looked at whether in a UK population, the incidence of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a type of breast cancer making up 15% of all breast cancers, is associated with different ethnic groups. The study was based on a previous report that found a link between breast cancer incidence and ethnicity in the United States.

The study looked at pathology reports on 2417 women from the North East London Cancer Network diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005-2007. While previous study by Prof Møller found that Black and South Asian women in the UK have lower breast cancer incidence rates than White women, this study found higher incidence rates of TNBC in Black women.

The study led to a 2016 national, population-based study which found that the lower survival rate for Black women with breast cancer is not only due to ethnicity but also socioeconomic factors, lower uptake of screening, and tumour biology.

These studies showed that triple-negative brain cancer (TBNC) disproportionally affects Black women. It was important for the 2012 study to compare the UK population with the US one to clarify whether location-specific environmental and socioeconomic conditions played a factor. This really highlights the importance of population-based studies – we can now focus on engagement, intervention, diagnoses and treatment for Black women."– Professor Josip Car, Professor of Population and Digital Health Sciences in the Faculty of Life Science and Medicine and Director of King's Population Health Institute

In this story

Henrik Moller

Henrik Moller

Emeritus Professor of Cancer Epidemiology

Josip Car

Josip Car

Professor of Population and Digital Health Sciences

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