Although Black women have a higher rate of getting breast cancer before age 45 and are more likely to die from breast cancer at every age, a study from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has revealed that breast cancer deaths for this demographic are finally going down.
Closing the racial gap
There has always been a racial gap when it comes to death rates due to breast cancer among white and black women. The good news is that mortality rates due to breast cancer are on the decline — for black women as well as white women. This may mean that the racial gap is closing. According to the CDC, breast cancer incidence is about the same now for women of both races, and deaths from breast cancer are going down among both black and white women, especially among younger black women.
“Even among women ages 60 to 69, rates dropped 2 percent per year among white women and 1 percent among black women,” according to Dr. Lisa Richardson, director of the division of cancer prevention and control at the CDC.
Early detection making a big difference
Dr. Richardson believes that increased breast cancer education, more cancer screening and better treatment may be valid reasons why the numbers are going down. Early detection is key to producing positive results from treatment of breast cancer.
Although black women still have a higher mortality rate than white women of dying from breast cancer, the latest statistics hold out hope that more and more black and white women can be saved from this potentially deadly disease.
For more details about the study, visit www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6540a1.htm
