What Black Women Should Know About Breast Cancer

It is not fully understood why black women are at increased risk of these aggressive cancers, but complex factors, both genetic and lifestyle, may be involved.

Complex problems, Triple negative breast cancer Treatment can be particularly difficult due to the absence of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or human epidermal growth factor. Breast cancers that have these receptors receive signals from various hormones that direct them to grow. “Most of our progress in breast cancer treatment has been in the design of drugs that actually go to those receptors and block them.” Carmen War, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Medicine Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and Volunteer Leaders and Chief of Science National Board of Cancer Association, Tell SELF. This means that far more TNBCs are already imbalanced in black women. Cumbersome Because science hasn’t caught up yet.

However, there is research in the work. Cod research, Leaded by Dr. Torres. Objective: To treat certain types of metastatic TNBC using a combination of radiation therapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy. Dr. Torres says he wants to stimulate the tumor to make it more responsive to immunotherapy. Immunotherapy helps your body attack and destroy cancer cells after being exposed to radiation.

2. Many black women do not participate in clinical trials, often for reasons beyond their control.

Like many others, you must be in the room where it happens and experiences changes. For breast cancer, the “room” can contain clinical trials that offer new and innovative treatments. Unfortunately, black women often do not participate in clinical trials for a myriad of reasons, including distrust of the medical community based on both past and present experience, lack of access, and simply undiagnosis.

In fact, between 1990 and 2010, 80% to 90% of breast cancer patients enrolled in practice-changing clinical trials were non-Hispanic Caucasians.^Five.. This underestimation can hinder the proper development of treatments and the understanding of their potential efficacy in black women who are already predisposed to difficult-to-treat breast cancer.

“If the treatments in these studies significantly improve outcomes and survival, the first patients to benefit are often not minorities,” said Dr. Torres. “If these trials lead to changes in standard practice, these are due to differences in provider knowledge and the difficulty of insurance coverage often encountered with new, expensive but highly effective treatments. Incorporation of treatments into routine practice may be slow. “

Doctor to encourage more black women to enroll in these exams and increase access to these exams for those who are really interested. Gera says medical professionals have to leave the hospital and go to the community.Her work has been published in a recent issue Journal of Clinical Oncology⁶ I did exactly that.Faith-based entities and by focusing on the development of more culturally coordinated marketing, such as pamphlets and websites featuring the black community Treated individual By talking to community members, providing transportation, and including a minority participation plan in all trials, Dr. Gera and her team have had black cancer in four years at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia. We were able to double the clinical trial participation rate of patients. period.

3. Black women tend to have thick breasts.

Dense breasts mean more glands and fibrotic connective tissue than fat. Dense breasts can be normal and are actually quite common! Almost half of women over the age of 40 Mammogram The chest is dense. However, it is also worth noting that they can be risk factors for breast cancer. National Cancer Institute.. Women with dense breasts are 1.2 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with average breast density. In addition, black women are usually more breast-dense than white women.^7,8 Whether or not the breasts are dense cannot be determined by the feel or hardness alone. Mammograms are the only way.