Breast Cancer Awareness Month provides the perfect time to reach out to the women around you and emphasize the importance of yearly checkups, self-monitorization, and overall education of a disease with which one out of every eight women will become afflicted at some point in her life. With that being said, breast cancer does not affect everyone equally. Women with a family history are at higher risk of a breast cancer diagnosis, but beyond that hereditary factor, Black women are at higher risk of breast cancer incidences.
Over the course of 14 years, rates of breast cancer incidences in white women decreased, while they increased over the same period for Black women. Even though the rates have since relatively stabilized between women of both races, Black women remain 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women. Not only do Black women experience higher mortality rates than white women, but the mortality rates decline at vastly different rates, even with advancing science and treatments. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), white women in the 60-69 age range see a two percent yearly decrease in breast cancer deaths, while mortality rates for Black women in the same age range only decrease by one percent per year. Furthermore, Black women generally receive a breast cancer diagnosis in a later stage than white women.
This is clearly a pervasive issue that needs to be addressed in order to find a solution, however the causes of the inconsistencies are nuanced and a definite singular factor leading to these statistics remains unclear. According to the Sisters Network, a national organization focusing on breast cancer survivorship in Black women, the leading cause of higher death rates among Black women is a lack of action. While it is widely acknowledged that breast health is an important issue, less than 20 percent of Black women have looked into the history of breast cancer in their family, which puts them at an even greater disadvantage if they are higher risk, because they will fail to look for the signs. This theory is backed up by breast cancer surgeon Dr. Patti Stefanick, who attributes higher mortality rates and later diagnoses to a general unwillingness to get checked.
But why? This is not the fault of an entire group of women, and clearly something must have caused this trend that leads to a cloud of secrecy surrounding breast examinations, education, and overall health.
It is no secret that women of color are marginalized and widely ignored when it comes to adequate healthcare, and I believe these trends lead to the stigma and reluctance surrounding breast examinations and treatments. In 2005, the National Academy of Medicine found that Black patients receive inferior healthcare treatments, including cancer treatments, to white patients, even when all other factors besides race are the same. People of color have been consistently underrepresented and ignored by the healthcare community as a whole for generations, so even with organizations like Sisters Network, Black Women’s Health Imperative, and the African American Breast Cancer Alliance, there is still a lack of trust due to past and present health discrimination.
This October, it is important for all of us to reach out to the people in our lives about breast health. There is a woman in your life only you can reach, and the best way to potentially save her from breast cancer is starting the conversation. The battle is not close to being over, especially for women of color who remain widely marginalized, but the more women who are pointed in the right direction toward regular mammograms and self-checking, along with an open dialogue about breast health, the closer we will move toward a world with happier, healthier women.
Sources
https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-risk-factors
https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/research/articles/breast_cancer_rates_women.htm
http://www.sistersnetworkinc.org/breastcancerfacts.html?c=WLYHE