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Sep 25, 2007 4:10 pm US/Eastern
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Racial Gap Continues As Cancer Deaths Decline
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
There's encouraging news that breast cancer deaths continue to decline, but there's still a racial gap in those figures.
The American Cancer Society reports breast cancer deaths continue to drop steadily among white and Latino women, declining 2 percent each year between 2001 and 2004, thanks to improved detection and treatment.
"The wide spread use of mammography during the 80s and 90s led to early diagnosis and more effective drugs," said Dr. Bruce Chabner of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
According to the report, breast cancer cases overall declined 3 percent a year. There has been an even higher decline rate for women over 50 years old, partly because many of them stopped taking hormones which have been linked to the disease.
But death rates fell only 1.6 percent among African American women.
"The screening rates are lower in African American women," Chabner said. "Access is not as good, so patients come in with more advanced cases."
Experts said the government and local health care agencies need to set up additional programs to encourage more minorities to get screened and treated for breast cancer and to take advantage of the services already available.
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