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Disparity Issues Highlighted in Komen for the Cure's first-ever State of Breast Cancer Report
Representatives of Susan G. Komen for the Cure emphasize that racial and socioeconomic factors including poverty, continue to play a significant roles in how people are treated for breast cancer and how they respond to treatment. Disparity issues were highlighted this week in Komen for the Cure's first-ever State of Breast Cancer Report, an up-to-date snapshot in time of the progress that has been made in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. The report devotes significant coverage to healthcare disparities, which are at the top of the list of challenges that remain in the way of Komen realizing its mission to end breast cancer forever.
Dr. Eric P. Winer, chief scientific advisor for Komen said, "Poverty and lack of access to quality medical care often prevent early detection of breast cancer. Moreover, once breast cancer is diagnosed, race, poverty and lack of health insurance lower the chance that treatment will be successful. In particular, African American women are less likely to develop breast cancer than Caucasian women, but are more likely to die of the disease.
While there may be biologic factors that account for some of the differences in mortality rates, there is no question that deeply engrained social issues play a significant role. We need an unrelenting focus on healthcare disparities and their underlying causes if we are to stop disproportionate suffering and death from breast and other forms of cancer."
These and other factors related to health care disparities are being explored this week at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference on The Science of Health Care Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved. Researchers are presenting findings on how poverty can affect cancer prognosis, how ethnicity can affect medical care, and how genetics can affect the survival of different groups of women.
Among the topics discussed at the meeting: -- Modifications of the current screening mammography guidelines for breast cancer may benefit African-American patients, who are thought to be at a disadvantage when it comes to survival of breast cancer and who may benefit from even earlier detection than yearly mammograms offer.
-- Differences in cultural views on matters such as breast appearance may influence treatment recommendations for Asian breast cancer patients, such as whether to choose a mastectomy over a lumpectomy, which preserves more of the breast tissue.
-- The influence of obesity on cancer outcome in low-income women and the possibility that obesity, in some patients, may place them at higher risk of developing a recurrence of breast cancer.
-- Biologic and genetic differences in the cancers identified in African-American and Caucasian women with the suggestion that tumors in African-American breast cancer patients may, in some cases, be more aggressive less likely to respond to hormonal therapy.
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