Chicago – The chances that a woman will die of breast cancer have been declining steadily for close to two decades – unless she’s black.
According to an alarming report released Tuesday, not only are African-American women not part of the downward trend, their death rates are actually going up as rates for white women go down. And, for unknown reasons, the situation is worse in Chicago than in other parts of the country.
“While advances in mammography screening and breast cancer treatment in Chicago have benefited white women, these advances have not helped reduce breast cancer mortality for African-American women,” said Alan Channing, president of the Sinai Health System, which released the report.
Calling on the medical community to improve screening and treatment, as well as access to care, Channing announced the formation of a task force that will try to figure out how to reduce the growing racial disparity in breast cancer death rates.
The report did not analyze data for Latinos, Asians or women of other races, all of whom have lower breast cancer rates than white and black women.
For the U.S. as a whole, the breast cancer mortality rate for white women is 25.2 per 100,000, compared with 34.6 for black women – 37 percent higher.
Researchers have been trying for years to discover why black women in America have a higher risk of dying of breast cancer, even though they’re less likely to get the disease. Some studies have indicated there are biological differences that may cause black women to get more aggressive types of breast cancer; others have found that black women are more likely to get inferior care.
The report, which has not yet been published, proposes three possible explanations for the disparity in mortality rates:
Black women get less-frequent screening mammograms.
The mammography available to black women is of poor quality.
Black women get less effective or delayed treatment once breast cancer is diagnosed.
