Nowadays, a number of women around the world have been struggling in battle against breast cancer at different stages of disease. Dangerously, most cases occur in females without any risk factors and threat life.  According to statistics from breastcanccer.org website, about an eighth U.S. women (just under 12%) will develop this invasive disease over the course of her lifetime(“Breast Cancer,2014). In 2013, about 39,620 women in the U.S. were expected to die from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1989(“Us Breast Cancer Statistics”,2013). Those above number are terrible and solutions for declining them are really urgent.

 Although any women could have mutated genes leading to breast cancer, there are genetic differences that are associated with the risk for this kind of cancer between white and black women(“Breast Cancer”,2014). In fact that black women are less likely than white women to get breast cancer, yet compared with white women, black women have the higher mortality rates from disease. According to the article Black Women and Breast Cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Black women and in 2010; besides, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also reported that the breast cancer death rate for women aged 45--64 years was 60% higher for Black women than white women (56.8 and 35.6 deaths per 100,000, respectively)(“Breast Cancer Death Rate”,2010). Through medical diagnose, African American women are less likely to be diagnosed with smaller tumors (less than 2 cm) and more likely to be diagnosed with larger tumors (greater than 5cm). A tumor is a mass of abnormal tissue. There are two types of breast cancer tumors: those that are non-cancerous, or ‘benign’, and those that are cancerous, which are ‘malignant’(“Breast Cancer Statistics for African American Women”,2013)

Breast cancer tends to appear in Black women at a younger age and in more advanced forms. Indeed, younger women generally do not consider themselves to be at risk for breast cancer. In fact, Black women are two times more likely to develop triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease which has fewer effective treatment options. Triple-negative breast cancers tend to grow and spread more quickly than most other types of breast cancer(“Type of Breast Cancer”,2014).

The most obvious factors of this disease are associated with a lack of health care coverage and socioeconomic status. Social Economic factors, in particular, appear to play a major role in influencing the prevalence of behavioral risk factors of African women than White women (for example, tobacco smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, and excessive alcohol intake, and health status), as well as in following cancer diagnostic recommendations.

The most widely used method and best available tool for detecting breast cancer is still screening mammography. However, based on many surveys for detecting breast cancer, the level of accuracy of each method has been always a controversial issue. Even though the definition of “breast awareness” has been still vague, it is essential for women to beware of signs of breast cancer through methods of examination

References:

Breast Cancer. (2014).Heath Guide. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/breast-cancer/risk-factors.html

Breast Cancer Statistics for African American Women.(2013). Retrieved from http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics

Breast Cancer Death Rates. (2010). Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5929a5.htm

Surviving Breast Cancer through Early Detection and Diagnosis. Black Women and Breast Cancer. Retrieved from http://www.blackwomenshealth.org/issues-and-resources/black-women-and-breast-cancer/

Type of Breast Cancer.(2014). American Cancer Society. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-breast-cancer-types