Black-white disparities widening in U.S. breast cancer deaths

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Black-white disparities widening in U.S. breast cancer deaths

By C.E. Huggins NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In the largest cities in the U.S., death rates from breast cancer have dropped across the board over 20 years, but far less so for black women than whites, according to a new analysis. "The advancements in screening tools and treatment which occurred in the 1990's were largely available to White women, while Black women, who were more likely to be uninsured, did not gain equal access to these life-saving technologies," lead author Bijou Hunt, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, told Reuters Health in an email. Past research has examined racial differences in survival for specific cancers and for cancer in general and found at least some could be explained by biology. Black women are also more likely than whites to have aggressive breast tumors that don't respond to the most effective treatments.

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