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Breast
Cancer Death Rate
Grows in Older Blacks
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - For reasons that researchers do not understand, the
breast cancer death rate of elderly black women increased in the
first half of the 1990s in the US, even though the death rate
among white women declined during the same period.
The increase
is especially puzzling because until 1993, the rate of breast
cancer deaths was lower in black women aged 70 and older than
in elderly white women.
``Trends in
risk factors, early detection, and treatment do no provide an
obvious explanation for the substantial increase in breast cancer
mortality for black women aged 70 years and older,'' Anne M. Marbella
and Dr. Peter M. Layde, of the Medical College of Wisconsin in
Milwaukee, write in the January issue of the American Journal
of Public Health, journal of the American Public Health Association.
Several studies
have shown that during the 1970s and 1980s, even though the death
rate from breast cancer in younger women was higher in blacks
than in whites, older black women were less likely than older
white women to die from breast cancer.
But some research
indicates that death rates from breast cancer declined in whites,
but not in blacks, during the first half of the 1990s.
To get a better
picture of the racial differences in breast cancer death rates,
the Wisconsin researchers analyzed national statistics from 1979
through 1996. The information was organized into 5-year periods.
Throughout
the study period, younger black women (aged 45 and younger) were
more likely to die from breast cancer than younger white women,
according to the report. In fact, from 1993 to 1996, the breast
cancer death rate in women aged 35 and younger was more than twice
as high in blacks than in whites.
``Even though
we cannot fully explain the discrepancy in mortality rates between
blacks and whites, the message about early detection remains important
for all women,'' Marbella told Reuters Health.
The best way
for women to protect themselves from breast cancer is to conduct
regular breast self-exams and to have mammograms as often as recommended
for their age groups, according to Marbella.
SOURCE:
American Journal of Public Health 2001;91:118-121.
Reference
Source 89
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