Recent studies have highlighted a troubling disparity in breast cancer outcomes: Black women are at a higher risk of mortality from all types of breast cancer, including the most treatable forms. As a Black female physician, I am deeply concerned by these statistics and believe it is essential to delve into the factors contributing to this gap and address them proactively.
What the Data Reveals
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology unveiled that Black women face a 40 percent higher risk of death from breast cancer compared to white women, despite similar diagnosis rates. This discrepancy spans across all breast cancer subtypes, even the most treatable ones. For the most common subtype (HR-positive, HER2-negative), Black women were 50 percent more likely to succumb to the disease than their white counterparts. Additionally, for triple-negative breast cancer, which is more prevalent in Black women but universally more fatal, there was still a 17 percent higher mortality rate compared to white women according to the study.
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