A recent study on breast cancer shows that black women who develop the disease before reaching menopause are twice as likely as white women to have a form of the cancer that is more lethal.
While black women’s death rate from breast cancer is 36.4 per 100,000, there are 28.3 deaths per 100,000 white women, the report said.
These disparities in breast cancer mortality are more pronounced among women under 50, with black women's death rate at 11 per 100,000 compared to 6 per 100,000 -- nearly double -- that of white women. So what are the reasons?:
Previous research has shown socioeconomic factors also play a role in black women's lower survival rate from breast cancer compared to whites women, including less access to care that translates into their getting diagnosed and treated later.
Let’s not also forget about the fact that black women are much less likely to get genetic counseling than white women, which can detect BRCA mutations. These mutations, which are prevalent in both races, account for 5 to 10 percent of the cases of breast cancer worldwide.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: White woman's disease my ass, part deux..
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/3441
As I read the research, the breast cancer found more commonly in US black (and, it appears African) women is a different disease requiring a different strategy from the diseases more commonly found in white women. At least in the groups studied, access to care was not a distinguishing issue.
DM, You're correct. The tumors that the black women are getting are more likely to be the variety that are not sensitive to estrogen, and thus cannot be treated with drugs like Tamoxifen, which ONLY work on estrogen sensitive tumors -- the kind that white women are more likely to get. Aparently chemo is still effective on the "african" tumors (for lack of a better adj.), but not effective enough.
Health disparities are also an issue, but I think the underlying genetics trump access to care issues in this case.
@ Daniel Millstone
You are right. Totally agreed with you. Regards, games