Dec. 7, 1999 (Atlanta) -- According to a new study by the National Cancer In
Dec. 7, 1999 (Atlanta) -- According to a new study by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), while death rates from breast cancer have decreased in the 1990s for white women, they have remained the same for black women, despite greater awareness and advances in breast cancer treatment. "The increasing disparity between breast cancer mortality rates in black and white women is disturbing," according to NCI researchers.
The study shows that mortality rates for breast cancer during the 1980s and 1990s have been increasing for both black and white women 80 years and older. But the breast cancer mortality trends for black women aged 40-79 increased in the 1980s and then leveled off after 1988. For white women aged 40-79, breast cancer mortality rates increased in the 1980s, although not to the same extent as for black women, and then declined after 1989.
NCI researchers say the differences may be socioeconomic rather than physical. Recent studies conclude that black women respond to treatment at about the same rate as whites do. Also, once diagnosed with breast cancer, the tumors in black women do not seem to follow a more aggressive pattern. Likewise, there is no evidence that black women with the same extent of disease receive lesser treatment, but tumors in black women are usually discovered at a later stage than are those in white women.
Kenneth C. Chu, PhD, one of the NCI researchers, says that the problem may be, at least in part, related to access to health care. "More programs are needed to remove barriers, both cultural and economic, that prevent black women from obtaining the regular health examinations that assure the early diagnosis of breast cancer," Chu writes. Chu works in the Office of Special Populations Research.
According to the CDC, an estimated 2 million American women will be diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer in this decade, and half a million women will lose their lives to these diseases.
Many of the deaths could be avoided by making screening services more available to all women at risk. CDC estimates show that screening measures could prevent approximately 15-30% of all deaths from breast cancer among women over the age of 40.
The NCI researchers did find that for black and white women aged 30-39 years, the death rates from breast cancer were level until 1987 and then declined significantly.
Vital Information:
- Despite advances in the treatment of breast cancer, the mortality rates for black women have seen little improvement, while those for white women began declining in the early 1990s.
- Researchers think the disparity is due not to physiological differences, but rather socioeconomic differences, specifically access to health care.
- Making screening measures more accessible to all women could prevent a significant number of deaths from breast cancer.
