Women Cancer Health Treatment

An African American woman is less likely to get breast cancer than a white woman, but more likely to die from it. For her, breast cancer often comes at a younger age and in more dangerous forms than for other U.S. women.

Dr. Beth A. Jones of Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Conn., found that a breast tumor characteristic called “p53″ (gene mutation that belongs to the tumor itself, not part of the woman’s genetic inheritance) is four times more common in African American than white women and P53 tumors are harder to treat.

“Women with p53 alterations don’t have the same response to standard chemotherapy treatment,” explained Jones. “One study suggested using higher-dose chemotherapy.”
“I feel that both women and physicians need to realize that breast cancer can occur more aggressively and at earlier ages in African American women,” Jones told Women’s eNews. “It’s critical for all women to be diagnosed early, but for African American women to follow the most stringent guidelines: start screening at age 40 with annual mammograms and clinical breast exams.”

From a study in the military showed that women with breast cancer have the same treatment, African Americans did just as well as the white women. There’s some suggestion that equal treatment means equal outcome,” said Saslow. Women in the U.S. military receive the same healthcare coverage regardless of race or ethnicity. Fear and fatalism about cancer are more common in African American than white communities including fears that having breast cancer makes a husband or boyfriend more likely to leave or that surgery causes cancer to spread.

Breast cancer treatment - discrepancies may result from doctors not knowing that African American women lifestyle need annual breast exams and mammograms starting at age 40 instead of age 50, as recommended for white women, and thus failing to catch breast cancer early; from women themselves not seeking the recommended checkups and being diagnosed at a later stage of breast cancer; and from other factors that are unclear.

Adapted from American Cancer Society