Black Women Highest Breast Cancer Rates - Research Report

A new analysis of breast cancer is giving doctors and patients a wealth of information geared at helping to diagnose and treat the disease. The data was presented in a report released Monday, 30 March 2015, by four major cancer groups in the U.S., including the American Cancer Society. It provides the most detailed analysis to date of breast cancer risk by age, race and geography.

According to the report black women have nearly twice the rate of triple negative breast cancer (the deadliest form) as white women and have the highest mortality rate from any form of breast cancer.

Triple negative is one of four molecular types of breast cancer. A new report emphasizes how important it is for doctors to identify the risks and treatments for each form. For example, triple negative cancers do not respond to certain hormonal therapies that can help other women.

Triple negative breast cancer can be effectively treated if the disease is caught early. In this case, the patient needs to undergo a long course of aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.

The nationwide data -- published in the journal of the National Cancer Institute and co-authored by the American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health -- may help doctors identify which patients are at most risk for each type of breast cancer and which treatments may be most effective.

The authors of the paper looked at the impact of a number of genetic, environmental and social factors including ethnicity, race, age and poverty level that may contribute to breast cancer risk.

Zelma Watkins, a black woman, was only 44 when a routine mammogram turned up something suspicious. "The fact that I had a mammogram eνery year and they never had to take additional pictures", said Watkins, "I was thinking that something was not quite right".

Watkins had triple negative breast cancer, which required intensive chemotherapy.

Researchers used to think the poor outcome in blacks was due to higher poverty rates leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment. But new information surfaced in the report that suggests there are other factors at play.

Newly discovered genetic hot spots linked to breast cancer

"There were actually other clues that there might be some biological differences in breast cancer as well," said Dr. Lisa Newman, a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer. "This report confirms that suspicion. Breast cancer afflicts African-American women in different ways."

Watkins volunteers with Sisters Network Inc., a group that carries out breast cancer education and outreach for black women.

"I don't see why I had triple negative breast cancer, it does not run in my family," said Watkins. "But, the fact that I was receiving my annual mammograms, it was detected at an early stage".

Dr. Newman stressed that breast cancer has the best prognosis when caught early. She said that makes screening especially important in black women who are at the highest risk for the deadliest form.