Breast Cancer Rates and African Americans
By: Neile Jones
Updated: October 10, 2007
At a breast cancer summit in Chicago last fall - researchers released a report - that found survival rates over the past two decades increased - but only among white women. Findings echoed in new research of fifteen-thousand women with advanced breast cancer. From 1988 to 2003 - survival rates among Africans held steady around 17 months - compared to an increase from 20 to 27 months among white women. Researchers at The M-D Anderson Cancer Center did not look at reasons behind the disparity. Researchers plan to study the reasons for the growing gap in survival rates. Along with access to care, recent studies have suggested that African American women are more likely to develop more aggressive forms of breast cancers that don't respond as well to conventional therapies. According to The American Cancer Society, in 2007, more than 180-thousand women will be diagnosed whit breast cancer and more than 40-thousand will die from the disease.
