Health Care
What African-American Women Need to Know About Breast Cancer
by Lorie Parch
ven though breast cancer incidence rates are slightly lower overall among African-American women than white women (the incidence is lower still among Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women), a combination of socioeconomic factors and unexplained biological differ- ences make the disease more deadly—and in some cases, harder to treat—in the black community. Also, African-Ameri- can women under 45 have a greater inci- dence of breast cancer than white women in the same age range.
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Many women are “triple negative” No one yet knows precisely why, but African-American women are roughly twice as likely as white women to have triple-negative breast cancer—so called because tumor cells in this particularly ag- gressive form of the disease test negative for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2). This puts Herceptin and hormone therapies, such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibi- tors, entirely out of reach as treatment op- tions. It’s suspected that some combina- tion of genetics and environmental factors are at play in triple-negative disease.
Socioeconomic factors The five-year survival rate for white
women is approximately 90%; for Afri- can-American women it’s roughly 77%. Differences in medical coverage and health-care access likely explain this. Overall, African Americans tend to have more trouble finding consistent, good- quality health care—which amounts to fewer breast cancer screenings and inferi- or treatment when they are diagnosed. “Black women have been noted to
present [at a doctor’s office] with later stage cancer, which has a worse out- come—and they don’t always get adequate
90
care,” says Ruth O’Regan, MD, associate professor of hematology and oncology and director of the translational breast cancer research program at Emory Uni- versity’s Winship Cancer Institute in At- lanta. Seeking medical help when a tumor is larger, higher grade, and/or with more lymph nodes involved can dramatically lower a woman’s odds for survival.
www.blackeoejournal.com
Not in the research yet Another potential problem for African-
American women seeking treatment for breast cancer is that they have been under- represented in chemotherapy breast can- cer research, so it has been difficult to de- termine whether they might metabolize chemotherapy drugs differently from the primarily white research subjects. The is- sue is being actively researched now. Source:
Health.com
The Black E.O.E. Journal
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