African American Women Need Earlier Screening for Breast Cancer

African American Women Need Earlier Screening for Breast Cancer: "African American Women Need Earlier Screening for Breast Cancer



Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death for women, ages 40-55, and African American women under the age of 45 are more likely to develop breast cancer than any other group of women in the US.

Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer; every 12 minutes a woman dies from breast cancer and every year over 5000 African American women die from the disease.

Although the cause of breast cancer is still unclear, researchers have determined that African American women tend to develop breast cancer at earlier ages than white women and they typically develop more aggressive types of tumors.

Breast cancer often occurs in African American women under the age of 40 and as early as age 25.

In a study of breast cancer tumors in African American and white women, conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 2004, researchers determined that breast tumors in young African American women were more likely to be fast-growing and more aggressive than those found in white women.

'One of the important conclusions from this study is that even when you correct for stage � that is, look at tumors of the same stage from white women and African American women � tumors from the African-American women tend to have features characteristic of more aggressive and rapidly growing cancers,' said Dr. Peggy Porter, lead author of the study. 'If their tumors tend to grow more quickly, this may help to explain why their cancers are being diagnosed at later stages, which can lead to poorer outcomes.'

Other studies have indicated that there are other possible reasons that African American women suffer high death rates f"