Inner-City Mammography Programs Aim to Make Breast Cancer "A Visible Disease"

Extract

As investigations into the breast tumor biology of black women intensify, advocates of early detection are stepping up efforts to create culturally sensitive breast cancer screening programs for African-American women that guide them beyond early detection to diagnosis and treatment.

Incidence and mortality rates have always formed the rationale behind the creation of breast cancer detection programs for African-American women. Recent data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program indicate the age-adjusted incidence rate of breast cancer in black women is 99.3 per 100,000 population compared with 113.2 for white women.

Yet when blacks’ breast tumors are diagnosed, 51% of the cancer cases are detected in their localized stage, compared with 63% for white women. Overall, African-American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than are white women; black women’s mortality rates attributable to breast neoplasms—31.4 per 100,000 population—exceed those of white women by about 22%. Black women’s mortality rates due to breast cancer surpass those of other ethnic minorities as well, including Asian and Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Hispanics.