Black women are more likely than white women to die of all types of breast cancer

Black women are even more likely to die from breast cancers that are considered more curable, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology published Tuesday. 
 
According to the experts it has been revealed that the differences are not biological but are rather caused by race. Both black and white women are diagnosed with breast cancer with the same proportion, only Black women have 40% higher mortality from this disease. 
 
“Within health care, there was this understanding that an important cause of disparities was found in the fact that Black women have higher incidences of triple-negative – an especially malignant type of breast cancer,” the lead author of the study Erica Warner explained. 
 
Though, Warner stated that it did form part of the higher rates of death, based on the results, it was not a significant let alone a main factor. 
 
Warner and her colleagues also did a meta-analysis of 18 studies in which there were a total of 229386 patients breast cancer; wherein 34000 were black patients to compare the mortality rates between the black women and the white women with the same breast cancer molecular subtypes. 
 
Thus, a cancer’s subtype determines how the tumor acts and reacts to therapy, and it has a major impact on mortality. 
 
The clinical staging for breast cancer depends on what type of receptors are attached on the surface of the tumor cell. Estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER-positive or PR-positive respectively) are present in HR-positive tumours. HER2-positive tumors possess a kind of receptor through which a tumor progresses quickly – or is receptive to treatment. 
 
Still, in all instances, the receptors possibly can act as definite treatment objectives. If a tumor lacks all the three receptors, it is called triple-negative and this is the most dangerous to treat. 

Whereas for the commonest subtype, HR-positive HER2-negative, affecting 60-70% of the patients, Black women had 50% higher risk of dying off the disease compared to white women. Among women with these tumor subtypes; HR positive and HER 2 positive, Black women were 34% more likely to die than White women. 
 
Black women had that much higher chances of death using triple-negative breast cancer than White women to the surprise of Warner. 
 
Contrary to the expectations of the researchers, despite the Black women are diagnosed three times for triple-negative breast cancer than the white women, as everyone knows that it is the most fatal cancer type, a significant race difference was not observed. 
 
“We believed that the variations we were looking for would be identified in the hormone receptor-positive tumors and not in the triple-negative ones,” said Warner. “Actually, what we witnessed were the similar differences in all the subtypes of breast cancers for which we conducted the comparison. ” 
 
The creationist motto that ‘If we can create them, we can eliminate them’ is still up to this present moment ringing its toll in many parts of our world. 
 
The fact that the larger disparities were observed in women with hormone receptor-positive tumors gives an insight on how the racial inequalities contribute to the mortality, according to Dr. Eric Winer, the director of the Yale Cancer Center. 
 
“In these cancers, people require to extend hormonal therapy for five years or more which to many come with monetary cost, thus there is an element of economics involved. ” Winer said. “They are falling through the cracks, whether it is because they cannot afford hormones, not as able to take it or not, or cannot get medication. ” 
 
Doctors may also not recommend such prolonging treatments to Black or low-income patients as frequently, he pointed out. It is incorrect to state that all Black women are low-income and uninsured however the data from CDC reveals that Black patients are more likely to be uninsured than white patients. 
 
There are many structural factors that increase the likelihood that Black women encounter various forms, and Dr. Wendy Wilcox, the chief women’s health officer at New York City Health + Hospitals, noted that. 
 
“It’s like there are all these things that we don’t even consider when we consider breast cancer treatment but of course they do matter,” she said. 
 
If you define health determinants as ranging from health care to child care, from transportation to and from appointments to time off from work, access to healthy foods, and living in low-pollution areas, and so on, then Deloria’s people again are all over the place, ranked at or near the bottom in every category. 
 
Clinical trials have for a long time not featured black women as subject of the study according to Wilcox. “Right from the breast cancer treatment research stage, something that commenced from 1992, Black women are missing. ” 
 
Black women also get breast cancer at a young age, but they do not undergo screening and are diagnosed at a more advanced stage. 
 
“It does not matter the subtype it’s always about early diagnosis,” noted Dr. Marissa Howard-McNatt, director of the Breast Care Center at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist based in North Carolina. “Black women have the tendency to get breast cancer at a younger age, you know, like at the 40s, but we do not start screening until 40, but frankly a lot of Black women can get breast cancer at the 30s. ” 
 
If a woman has a family history of breast cancer, she should begin mammogram screening 10 years younger than the age when her sibling or parent was diagnosed with breast cancer, according to Howard-McNatt. 
 
“Women of all races, specially blacks, have to understand their family information,” she said. 
 
She said that being able to support Black women who are diagnosed with breast cancer to access healthcare facilities with patient navigators, which are helpers who handle all the needs of the patient from explaining the treatment plan to even transportation, could be one way of starting to demystify disparities that these women experience. 
 
The differences in the death rates from breast cancer between the black and white woman were not always same. 
 
“If we go back 40 years and look at death rates for breast cancer, there weren’t large disparities between Black and white women,” Warner said, adding that improved breast cancer care over the past few decades widened the gap between the two groups. “That is an issue, but it also suggests that we have the pedal to the metal when it comes to these differences If we can create them, then it means that we can also eradicate them. ”