by
Portia
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in American women. It doesn’t discriminate and affects women of all races, ages and economic backgrounds. A recent study revealed that black women are less likely than white women to develop breast cancer but more likely to die from it.
According to TheLedger.com, the death rate for black women with breast cancer is 60 percent higher and averages 56.8 deaths per 100,000, while white women average 35.6. Despite the fact that both black and white women regularly get mammograms at age 40 and older, there are a few reasons why the mortality rate differs:
Black women’s breasts are denser
This means detecting cancer in mammograms is more difficult. Denser breasts are also thought to boost the risk of developing cancer.
Triple Negative
Black women are twice as likely to develop a form of breast cancer called “triple negative”. This particular cancer grows and spreads rapidly and is not supported by hormones such as estrogen, progesterone. This means that hormonal therapy (Tamoxifen) generally used to treat of breast cancer isn’t effective in treating triple negative breast cancer.
Black Women Get Breast Cancer at Earlier Ages
The screening guidelines for black women also come into play when diagnosing breast cancer early. In April 2015, The United States Preventative Services Task Force proposed new guidelines for breast cancer screening, recommending that women start getting mammograms every two years at the age of 50 rather than receiving their first mammogram at the age of 40 and yearly thereafter.
However, black women get hit by breast cancer at a younger age than any other race. Even though mammograms are now recommended every two years when women turn 50, black women still need to get them done at age 40. If your mother had breast cancer at the age of 45, you need to get your mammogram done at age 35 – ten years earlier than your mother’s diagnosis.
What can you do?
Of course breast cancer affects all women. However, with these startling new statistics, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that black women need to be educated about the dangers of waiting to get their first mammogram. Keep in mind that when breast cancer is detected early there are more effective treatment options available. Here is how you can be proactive about your health:
Have you or someone you know been affected by breast cancer? Have you made any lifestyle changes to prevent the disease?
24 Responses
Personally, I don’t know of any BW who has or had breast cancer or any type of cancer, but I have heard that amongst our women it is there. I know it is more prevalent with WW. I can meet WW and WM with cancer in general all day everyday where I live. I 100% believe we should be teaching that prevention is better than cure I also understand that the medical industry thrive of people being ill as it is a big money making business and that there are other industries who also benefit. It is irresponsible of the system to tell someone that when you suddenly develop a life threatening disease that is then that they must start exercising and eating healthier. Schools need to be equipped enough to educate the children on the benefits of a healthy life because a lot of the adults have sure lost that knowledge. When you look at populations across the world who practise healthier lifestyles you see that diseases prevalent in the Western world barely scratch their surfaces if at all, this is real. I look at my grandma who is well into her 90s now as fit and healthy as anything. She eats nothing but the food from her small land in the Caribbean occasionally buying fresh fish. She loves to walk and of course has the sunshine in abundance.
Tell women at greater risk for cancer that mammographies will cause cancer, tell them they can run laps and go on a juice cleanse instead, then allow them to “make their own decision”. Riiiight. You’re the pregnancy crisis center of cancer. YIKES.
My god. You know absolutely nothing about actual medical treatment and tumorigenesis. Part of my job is examining tumors. I work with physicians involved in the treatment of these patients. I know people who have died of cancer. Metastasis of cancer cells is not inhibited by exercise, magic crystals or spinach. Stop reading Facebook nonsense abort tumeric “reducing inflammation”. For patients with real, diagnosed conditions, more garlic will just make them smell.
Misinformation kills. Thermography is nonsense.
You don’t know what I know. Just because you disagree so rudely does not mean I am presenting misinformation. You might work with tumors and have gotten to know a few patients but I have treated patients with respiratory illnesses and life support (including cancer patients) and even worked at a cancer center teaching women about cancer awareness and have had to see women shrivel into nothingness from being poisoned from chemotherapy and cells fried from radiation…some of the time they die, not from the cancer, but from the treatment that you espouse and seem to believe in so wholeheartedly. Prove to me that cancer is what causes people to die instead of the “treatment”. Prove to me that radiation from mammograms isn’t causing a significant number of women to develop breast cancer to begin with. Patients’ bodies are flooded with chemicals from chemo that kill cells indiscriminately while pharmaceutical industries look for the next big thing to target cancer cells only….and usually the research is on what is found in nature. Don’t tell me nature doesn’t work, cancer industry is using nature to find treatments, never present a cure because that would mean an end to profits. They want to single out one compound from an herb or an enzyme from a plant or marine life or wherever and reproduce an independent synthetic version of it and patent it to make the next drug.
I’ve come across plenty of people who rejected your methods and instead took to what was found in nature to cure themselves and believe they are alive today because they rejected the norm. There are plenty of graves from people who had accepted the norm.
Your “misinformation” is another person’s reality. cancer is very real…but the only things you have recommended are radiation and surgery (keep cutting and cutting and cutting). Your bread and butter are cancer patients. So, it would only make sense that you would scoff at what I have written. Eating healthy and exercise are not for white people only. Black women don’t need to turn to just conventional methods for treatment but, if conventional is what some prefer, then that’s their choice.
Under the right circumstances the body can heal itself. I know if I were facing cancer I’d want to know about my options and the cancer industry would say ‘radiation’, ‘surgery’ and ‘chemotherapy’. I’d want more than radiation, surgery, and chemo.
Actually, I faced a situation 15 years ago where the doctor wanted to LEEP and cone out what was becoming cancer on my cervix and I wondered what my options were and did my own research instead of following the conventional methods. I tell you I am here today healed from my precancerous situation without having to get cut once. Thank God it worked for me. Yes, sometimes surgery is necessary, but I guarantee it’s not necessary every time. In regards to mammograms, thermography, or whatever, it’s a woman’s choice, whatever her race or status, and hopefully whatever decision she makes it’s in her best interest.
Here’s a link to part 1 of a 9 part docu-series that just started Tuesday. Anyone interested to learn more about cancer should watch, it is very informative:
https://go2.thetruthaboutcancer.com/global-quest/episode-1/#
God bless.
“Under the right circumstances, the body can heal itself.”
Make no mistake, healthy diets and exercise are a recipe for a healthy life. These are good things. EVERYONE should aspire toward eating whole foods and little processed goods. That’s not my rub. But there is not a susbstitute for medical treatment. I agree that medicine is eager to excise pre-cancerous lesions unnecessarily. As it is, prophylactic mastectomies and prophylactic salpingo-pop here tlmies for BRCA mutations has flooded the industry with money, but we are just starting to understand how these mechanisms work to form cancer cells. The more we treat, the more we understand. There have been needless excisions done in the past and through research, testing, radiography, following patients and such, we have cut back. Believe, surgeons are not hacking and slashing like they used to. What they excised 15 years ago, a surgeon may just monitor today. But it’s a process to get to that point. We are at a stage where black women are dying of advanced cancers. Why? They aren’t being followed to find out how these cancers develop. We can learn so much from one patient or a couple unique cases. The work we do now aids in lessening intervention later. But we can’t just say, “try these alternative methods” because it’s not just about treating but UNDERSTANDING cancer better. I rely on the validity of the methods we have now until it’s proven otherwise. If it’s bunk, then I’m happy to toss it out.
Yes, the treatment can be more toxic than the disease, but depending on the type and stage of cancer, clinicians may be hopeful for other options beyond chemo and radiation. It isn’t an easy racket. Oncology has poor outcomes. As many as there are who die from treatment, multiples more have been successfully treated. It’s the difference between a fair chance and no chance. We have progressed by leaps and bounds. Let’s not regress by shunning medical research and methods.
Chevanne, as an OB/Gyn who has done actual lab research on cancer and tumor genesis, thank you. You cannot argue with idiots. Mom_of_IV Is an idiot. How can you work in the medical field and indescriminately regurgitate nonsense. The current mammogram machines emit less radiation now than they ever have. This was done due to the concerns raised by the preventative task force about cumulative radiation risk. This risk is why they changed the age of initiation of mammograms to 50. And This was despite the lack of substantial evidence regarding cumulative radiation with mammogram increasing actual cases of breast cancer.
To her remark about the medical field making money off of people becoming ill, this is just so freaking ignorant I can’t even stand it. This to me is more proof that she does not actually, or never has, actually worked in medical field. I don’t make any extra money off of sick people. If anything, I lose money by taking care of sick people because it takes more time.
However, looking just at this point, this idea of the medical field wanting people to get ill is contradicted by the fact that ACOG and the American Cancer Society and Susan G Komen all still recommend annual screening starting at age 40. These organizations, took into account the fact that different women of different races get breast cancer at different ages. In addition, within the last year that has even been a change in how breast density has been triaged. Women who have increased breast density or a higher breast density are recommended to come back for annual mammography. Some radiologists who are very skilled at breast mammography recommend a 2-D mammogram over a 3-D mammogram just because of the level of radiation as well as the improved visualization and characterization of tumors in women with dense breasts with the addition of ultrasound. Ultrasound does not have any radiation. So in this way, the concern about radiation risk is addressed by having decreased radiation exposure with the 2D mammogram in addition to the ultrasound if needed. Those are sisters who have less dense breasts, have been triaged into smaller risk groups and therefore do not need imaging as frequently.
I agree with you, there is no magic is juicing, magic herb, heat therapy, snake oil, etc. that will cure someone of cancer. Now, there are ways to prevent cancer and there are ways to be proactive about early cancer detection. Do I argue with the idea of diet is being a large indicator or initiator of cancer, no . As a matter of fact, we know that our Japanese or pacific islander sisters and brothers are more at risk of stomach cancer due to the kind of fish that they eat. We know that eating a large amount of smoked fish increases stomach cancer risk. That right there lets you know the importance of what we eat. I agree that the highly processed foods that people of color eat in United States has a large effect on how to terrible our health is. This is why we need to start our children eating right by breast-feeding. Breast milk is the best milk and helps set up our bowels to be healthy for the rest of her life. Once a mother feeds her child breastmilk, she is not going to turn around and give that kid Doritos. We also know that breast-feeding helps to decrease breast cancer risk as well as ovarian cancer risk. I don’t see this mother of four advocating that all mothers breast-feed their kid. I sure hope she breast-fed all of her children. If you talk about alternative therapies, breast-feeding is probably one of the best alternative therapies to help decrease the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer which are killers of black women.
Another reason why women of color have such a terrible mortality when it comes to breast cancer and ovarian cancer is because of lack of access. To address this, there are multiple organizations like the BCCC which help to provide breast cancer, cervical cancer and ovarian cancer screening to poor women and women of color. Do you know who the number one referrer is to the BCCC program? Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood does an amazing job of connecting people who have no money with organizations, clinics, radiology standalone clinics, and hospitals for routine mammograms, colonoscopies, colposcopies. I really hate when people besmirch the name of Planned Parenthood. Mostly because everyone wants to point to the number of Planned Parenthood’s that are in urban areas. When you consider the number of brown people who do not have cars, who do not have white-collar jobs, who have to work part time jobs, sometimes multiple part-time jobs, then look at the number of physicians clinic that are actually in the inner-city, it makes sense that there are a number of Planned Parenthood clinics in urban areas where people are able to easily get to them with bus services or by walking down the street. It takes a long time to get to a doctors office, it takes a long time to wait in the doctors office waiting room, especially if it is an OB/GYN’s office and I have to run out and do a delivery. Women have to work. They have to get back to work or they will be fired. Planned Parenthood helps to bring access to women who otherwise would not be able to get to providers in suburban areas or areas that are not as accessible on bus routes. But let me tell you, Planned Parenthood gets these patients into the specialty clinics much faster those who had no money try to do it themselves. Planned Parenthood opens doors that otherwise will be slammed shut on people with no money, no insurance. I can honestly say, in the past five years , Planned Parenthood has saved the lives of at least 10 people on my panel alone because they got people in, got mammograms done, got breast exams done, and sent the patient who had cancer on to me who can then refer the patient onto right specialist if that problem was outside of my realm. And let me tell you, the sisters that Planned Parenthood saved were brown like you and I. Please stop lying about what Planned Parenthood does. Only 3% of what they do as anything to do with abortions. Abortion is a difficult choice. It’s for some women, it is the only choice. Do not dare to put yourself in someone else’s life or shoes. Some of the sisters out here are dealing with people who are threatening them, threatening the children they already have, beating them, damn near beating babies out of them. . The decision to have an abortion is a heart wrenching decision. As women, we should be supporting our sisters who feel that they need to make this decision for themselves. I do not live in anyone shoes, no one lives in my shoes. Do not judge me, and I will not judge you.
Very interesting debate. Without getting into the fray, I thought it would be helpful to provide the links to some recent New York Times articles on the subject:
Doubt Is Raised Over Value of Surgery for Breast Lesion at Earliest Stage (08/21/15): https://nyti.ms/1E77Sav
Breast Cancer Research Admits Falsifying Data (about black South African Women) (02/2000): https://nyti.ms/1Pqf1CX
No need to argue with me. My opinion is to have a healthy lifestyle, with medical intervention only if absolutely necessary. I believe that women (and all people) have to take a look at all the information before them and make educated choices about their own health. But these are MY opinions. Bottom line: no one can live your life for you. So, it’s up to you. Whatever you decide, be proactive, since your life can depend upon it. Stay healthy and be blessed, my sisters.
BLESS THIS POST.
Wow, I have my sanity back. These are not recommendations the medical community makes to get their hands in your pockets. To be honest, I have a hard time figuring out who makes money off the sick. Sure as hell isn’t physicians busting their humps to see patients and battling insurance companies. A pathologist told me about a particular breast lesion that, for some years, was treated by total mastectomy. Once technology and research caught up, they realized these lesions didn’t need such drastic intervention. Hemi-corpectomies for retroperitoneal or pelvic sarcoma used to be an infrequent but steady procedure done at larger cancer hospitals. Now they’re not. We know better now but if we never made those mistakes, we would not come to a point where excision of benign soft tissue tumors are curative.
We have a serious problem with black women and need to develop standards based on their cancers. Preventative care is key. I’ve seen my share of breast tumors invading through the skin clocking in at 10 cm. That’s extraordinary! On dissection, we ask what took so long and before we talk denial, we really need to talk access.
Exactly right about stomach cancers. The US has more colon cancer. Places with squatting toilets have less rectal cancer. We can go round and round about how the environment affects tumorigenesis. It’s really funny when people think medical professionals believe only a pill will help. We understand more about what the general public does about cancer causes. Treatment though, is a different story. Steve Jobs had a benign but aggressive pancreatic tumor that he waited a whole year to treat medically. By that time, he needed a Whipple instead of a partial pancreatectomy. In this case the treatment killed him but the tumor already metastasized to the liver. People tell you part of the story. Had he been treated, he might be alive today.
And on abortions… when you have that baby, they wheel you out to your car and wave goodbye. No one tells you how to manage the stress, possible depression or relationship changes with that baby. The responsibility falls on you and if you can’t handle it, make your own choice. It’s not my life.
Thank you again. Nice to see logical people out there.
I roll with national or international medical societies.
https://www.acr.org/~/media/ACR/Documents/PDF/QualitySafety/Radiation%20Safety/Dose%20Reference%20Card_web_62215.pdf
Standing ovation!!!! Ma’am you must be a fan of Dr. Sebi….don’t let these fools make you doubt the truth you are speaking. These brainwashed sheeps are pitiful.
Also, for you to state that eating healthy, exercising, or herbs don’t help…look at the ‘pot calling the kettle black’…talk about misinformation. Just because you disagree does not mean unconventional methods haven’t helped people the world over.
Didn’t say they don’t help. It’s good to have a healthy diet and exercise but if you have cancer, which is the result of multiple factors, getting medical treatment will help. Not juicing.
People the world over… Love that “it’s been done all over the world” nonsense. People in other parts of the world, genetically are not susceptible to certain cancers. In concert, their diet plays a role but make no mistake, they get their own share of maladies.
Biggest revenue from abortions? With what mechanism specifically does an abortion cause cancer?
My god… The misinformation.
pardon me, I meant to say “biggest revenue from pregnancy services are from abortions”…I took it off before I noticed your comment.
You can’t help yourself but post things that have no scientific basis.
Oh and where I live you are advised to learn how your breast normally feel and look. Then if they feel or look different go to the doctor asap and don’t take no for an answer.
Please check your facts before posting something so controversial. Science has not proven any link between having had an abortion and an increased risk in cancer. Planned Parenthood, though it has not had the best history with communities of color, has made strides in modern times to improve the healthcare of all women.
More reading on the Breast Cancer and Abortion Myth:
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/moreinformation/is-abortion-linked-to-breast-cancer
I have and do check facts regularly, especially since this post discusses breast cancer. Here’s one example: https://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Lifestyle/abortion_breast_cancer_1124120828.html
Science has not proven mammograms are effective, in fact, it’s being found that mammograms are being over-utilized in addition to being highly profitable for the businesses involved:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/health/study-adds-new-doubts-about-value-of-mammograms.html?_r=0
planned parenthood isn’t the only place a woman can go to receive healthcare…a woman can’t even get a mammogram at planned parenthood even if she wanted one…here’s a list of their services on page 21: https://issuu.com/actionfund/docs/annual_report_final_proof_12.16.14_/0
Probably the best thing we can do for our sistas is to tell them to get vitamin D levels tested and start taking vitamin D and vitamin K (enhances the effects of vitamin D and a host of other benefits on its own), since higher levels of melanin usually result in lower levels of vitamin D in our systems and lower levels result in asthma, cancers, bone health issues, diabetes, etc…sound familiar?
https://jn.nutrition.org/content/136/4/1126.full
The cause is socioeconomic. White women are more likely to receive early screenings and get the appropriate treatment. As a consequence, their more frequent cancers are found earlier and excised. Black women who are of lower socioeconomic status, through lack of opportunity, access and knowledge are often treated once their cancer is more advanced. Add to that, they are more stubborn and do not respond well to more standard treatments. Think carefully about that. The standard treatment is based on the population being served. Black women not getting screenings means even the medicine has not caught up with how to help them.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/organization/crchd/cancer-health-disparities-fact-sheet
There are ways to improve this alarming reality which applies to black women, their communities and the medical personnel who serve them: get information out there. Oppose Planned Parenthood defunding because it’s responsible for many life saving screenings which include cervical cancers among women of lower socioeconomic statuses. Talk to medical professionals and get family members to do the same. The remaining suggestions in the article are very helpful as well.
planned parenthood isn’t the only place you can go to receive healthcare. Considering abortion raises cancer risk and planned parenthood’s biggest clientele for abortion are black women, it isn’t a surprise that more black women die from breast cancer than anyone else; sistas are too busy getting abortions than healthcare.
Redacted for duplication.
this was very informative! I’m definitely going to start checking myself. We should follow each other?
https://lbsabotage.blogspot.com
the problem is mammograms can actually cause cancer rather than prevent it. Women who receive mammograms annually are exposing their breasts directly to radiation…this presents a cumulative effect of radiation into the breasts.
What you choose to do with your body is your business but you should look into alternatives that are better for you than exposing you to radiation and are probably causing the problem they are supposed to detect in the first place. Thermography is better for you and your breasts than mammography (which is ineffective), research proves it. You can read about it here:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/20/breast-cancer-prevention.aspx
It is precisely this type of misinformation that is killing women. Kale will not kill cancer. Garlic will not shrink your tumor. Surgery, medicine and radiotherapy will. This person is corrolating things that are not related. We find more cancer now because we have ways to… FIND IT. The radiation emitted to find cancers is probably less that you receive tanning on the beach. Radiation exposure that causes cancer has to be cumulative over time and amount. The radiation is not like what’s in a nuclear reactor where spending 10 minutes next to the source will kill you. For these machines, you’d probably have to have it on full blast and carry it on your back for a year to develop cancer.
This article is damaging and advises sick people to not seek proper medical treatment, instead opting for hocus pocus. Change in diet does not prevent cancer or cure autoimmune disorders. No amount of fruit juice will stop immune cells from attacking your joints or a tumor from invading a nearby vessel. Add to that, the correlation without causation fallacy is rampant. Women who are BRCA positive are more likely to have the genetic dysregulation that makes cancer growth possible. If we follow these positive patients, we detect development of cancer over time radiologically. We are observing the process naturally take place, not causing it. The Cancer Genome Project seeks to map out the genetics of cancers so once they are categorized, we can study cause and connections. THEN we can see what other factors contribute. Until then PLEASE GET SCREENED. Go to a doctor. Medical intervention is a good thing and saves lives.
How exactly is thermography, or knowledge thereof, killing women? There are plenty of women (millions if you span decades and even into other countries) who have died going the routes you’re espousing. As I stated previously, ‘what you choose to do with you body is your
business’. How do you know that radiologically following someone who
has the BRCA gene isn’t by itself causing the growth of the cancer?
I think it’s great to know there are alternatives out there instead of the age old annually placing your breast on a plate and having radiation (that is consistent with 7 weeks worth of radiation from a woman’s natural surroundings driven into her breast in one session), while those who profit from the treatment tell you it’s good for you.
What studies have been done that specifically compare black women who chose to eat healthy (organic, raw foods) and exercise with black women who live the “traditional” lifestyle of fried fatty, chemical-laden foods and which group developed cancer more than the other?
Regardless of what you say, food does heal. If you prefer to run to the doctor to get antibiotics, a drug prescription or a shot of something every time you feel ill…then the pharmaceutical industry loves you. I believe we have what God made for us as a great way to treat what ails us and helps to heal us (obviously there are times when medical intervention is necessary). Spices (cinnamon, cloves, tumeric, nutmeg, etc.), garlic, onions, watercress, coconut oil, grass fed organic butter, probiotics, brussels sprouts, grass fed liver, organic chicken, fresh spring water, tons of other stuff…more effective than drugs, and the fast food industry, and the soda industry, and GMOs. Taking care of yourself does the body good and can prevent illness (including cancer).
Black women should be told they have options instead of just radiation to detect “possible” growths…part of those options include diet, and exercise, and avoiding things can can predispose you to cancer like carrying a cell phone in your breast pocket or literally placing a laptop on your lap, or using deodorant with aluminum in it. On the road of life, knowledge is power and just being a passive observer will get you run over. Women need to take the wheel and decide for themselves which is the best route to take.