Breast Cancer Deaths Down, But Decline Slower For Poor Women

Breast cancer deaths have dropped steadily since 1990, but they have declined at slower rates among women living in poor areas, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.

The report, released Monday, finds that despite continuing progress in reducing breast cancer deaths nationwide, survival rates are lower among women in poor areas. From 2003 to 2007, those women had a 7 percent higher risk of death from breast cancer than women living in affluent areas.

The report suggests several reasons for the disparity, including continued differences in screening rates.

"In 1990, the screening rate in poor women was about half that in non-poor women," Carol DeSantis, MPH, an epidemiologist in surveillance research with the American Cancer Society and one of the study’s authors, told HuffPost.

"Although mammography rates have increased for both groups, rates remain lower for poor women -- 51 percent versus 73 percent," she explained.

But not everyone agrees on the exact value of screening mammography, as reflected in differing screening guidelines. Some organizations, including the American Cancer Society, recommend women get a yearly mammogram starting at age 40, while the U.S. Preventative Task Force now recommends biennial screening for women aged 50 to 74. (DeSantis said it was "too early to tell" if the updated USPTF recommendations will have an impact on screening.)

The new report also stresses the role that access to better treatment options has played in fueling mortality rate disparities.

"Not all segments of the population have benefited equally from medical advances," the study’s authors write, citing advances in treatments such as adjuvant chemotheraphy and improved targeted therapies. Indeed, DeSantis explained that among women with regional stage cancer -- cancer that involves the lymph nodes -- the five-year survival rate is 87 percent for women in affluent areas. In poor areas, it is only 80 percent.

"It is a very complicated picture," said Susan Brown, director of health education at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, who suggested that the rate disparity may also reflect the higher burden of complicating factors, including diabetes and obesity, among poor populations.

"We've known about the issue of poverty and its association with breast cancer for years and it continues to be a problem," she added.

Overall, the new American Cancer Society report estimates that nearly 40,000 women will die of breast cancer in the U.S. in 2011 alone.

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Comments

[lklex]

06:45 PM on 10/04/2011

Notwithstanding articles like this and the ubiquitous pink ribbons and although rarely acknowledged by the news media, in REALITY male Americans bear a far greater burden of suffering with and dying from cancer than female Americans. Indeed, it is an unassailable truth that CANCER IS PRIMARILY A MEN'S DISEASE. In their lifetime, one of every two men, versus one of every three women, will be diagnosed with cancer. Male Americans have long suffered -- virtually in silence -- from higher cancer incidence and mortality rates. (Male residents in my state have a staggering nearly 50% higher age-adjusted death rate from cancer compared to female residents.) Moreover, as was confirmed by a recent NCI study, men who are diagnosed with cancer are more likely to die from the disease than are women who are diagnosed with cancer. Approximately 2,000 male Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and hundreds of them will die. Federal law (the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act) patently discriminates against male breast cancer victims. Under that Act, uninsured men are ineligible for medical assistance benefits for potentially lifesaving cancer treatment BECAUSE OF THEIR GENDER. Only women are eligible. Men have the right disease, but the wrong genitalia. Clearly, such sex discrimination is morally repugnant. It's time to set the record straight about cancer and gender...and end the inequities that grow the disparities in cancer incidence and mortality based on gender.

[lklex]

06:45 PM on 10/04/2011

the REALITY is that male Americans bear a far greater burden of suffering with and dying from cancer than female Americans.

[R Davis]

09:57 AM on 10/04/2011

Eric Canter and Mitch McConnell don't care.

[olitenup]

10:32 AM on 10/04/2011

No they don't, but then most republicans don't care.

[Sixtracks]

09:46 AM on 10/04/2011

While any type of cancer is tragic, I sure wish that these cancer cure folks would address the real problem: Our Toxic Environment. I wish they would be there rallying for clean air and clean water. For non-GMO foods. For organic vegetables. For corporate and governmental responsibility. For all the factors that give cancer a foothold.

[silverstreet]

09:46 AM on 10/04/2011

YES!!!

[olitenup]

10:28 AM on 10/04/2011

Spot on!

[seenitall]

09:25 AM on 10/04/2011

Kim Kardashian had a doctor x-ray her butt to show it's the real thing. Hurray for health care for some and a higher mortality rate for others!

[troyrobertdavid]

09:23 AM on 10/04/2011

According to the GOP if we just close down more Planned Parenthood clinics this problem would be fixed, right?

[colonelsun68]

08:35 AM on 10/04/2011

How can this be? If a woman finds a lump on her breast she should just report to the ER and everything will be taken care of...or at least that's what the anti-health care right keeps telling us.

[Rangergirl]

08:16 AM on 10/04/2011

No surprise there. Poor women are less likely to have insurance, or access to Drs. With the war on planned parenthood. More will struggle.

[blue53]

06:44 AM on 10/04/2011

Breast cancer rates are down because women stopped taking Hormone Replacement Therapy(HRT). In order to stay on HRT,a woman had to usually see her physician every six months, and having a mammogram was part of the deal. Women with insurance--got HRT and screening.
Poor women were offered HRT less,so you would not expect to see a decline in that group.

State programs that offered free screening to poor women have been cut, and poor women diagnosed with breast cancer are less likley to stay on cancer drugs. Some ofthat is related to cost--some is distrust of medical professionals.
Poor women are also more likely to to have a mastectomy vs breast sparing surgery.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1496759/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/12/poor-women-turned-away-fr_n_389889.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4508075&page=1

[hootie1fan]

06:20 AM on 10/04/2011

I worke my way through college and honorably served in the military. I've worked at least one job my entire post-collegiate life yet for the first time, I find myself without adequate health care coverage. My employer, a company doing rather well right now, dropped health insurnce coverage. I have private plan with a high deductible that requires I pay cash up front for everything. Do you have any idea how quickly you go through all your FSA $ the same year your premiumi ncreases by almost 50% even tough you haven't seen a doctor in 2 years.. I have enough $ to cover a mammogram and a physical, no prescriptions. That's it. If I get breast cancer, I long ago realized that it will probably kill me because I just can't afford to fight it.

[Topps]

06:47 AM on 10/04/2011

I am appalled and sadden to read your story you are unfortunately among the many with this issue.Republican style government never supports or mentions any favorables on this subject.In a country as wealthy as America decent healthcare,education should be available for all.Our taxes certainly pay for a lot of things that don't benefit us.That needs to be adjusted and changed.

[Bear Left]

08:10 AM on 10/04/2011

It gets worse: I had a girlfriend, whose mother died of breast cancer, who refused to get a mammogram because she was looking for a job and didn't want to be diagnosed with a pre-existing condition before she got on a group plan. Stories like these should not happen in the most powerful nation on Earth.

[Rangergirl]

08:20 AM on 10/04/2011

All these stories are so horribly sad. It is disgusting in a nation that is the most powerful in the World and its citizens are suffering without healthcare coverage.

[Sharon Hanson]

10:59 PM on 10/04/2011

I just finished watching Cut Poison Burn. There have been no breakthroughs in cancer research since the 1920s. I'm high risk for breast cancer and if I didn't have to go to get treated for poisoning from gadolinium based contrasting agents I wouldn't go to the doctors anymore and I have always had access.

I have been sick for 10 years from breast screening MRIs due to my high risk of breast cancer and I can seriously say that I would rather have cancer than this often times fatal, dibilitating, man-made disease called gadolinium associated systemic fibrosis formally called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. This author appears to be a ghost writer for pharma.

[hculliton]

06:01 AM on 10/04/2011

"Not all segments of the population have benefited equally from medical advances." Wow, what a thundering understatement! Might this situation have something to do with the fact that the working poor (another loaded term) have trouble affording their own medical coverage? And, even if they do scrape together the coin, the HMOs have a corps of employees implementing loopholes to deny coverage of variouus treatment. Finally, the right's doing it's level best to shut down Planned Parenthood which provides a lot of medical care to the poor.

No wonder the average American life expectancy is spiraling down towards that of Russia.You're destroying yourselves people - please wake up before it's too late.

[Justjack1]

04:04 AM on 10/04/2011

Well the GOP plan is simple, if you dont have over priced and fly-by-night private health insurance you should die. They make it so simple...

[MyrtleJune]

03:29 AM on 10/04/2011

I don't believe the stats produced by the biggest recipient of allll those dollars generated by this pink ribbon nonsense. I believer more of those dollars go for profiteers than saving anyone's life. I also think IF this pink ribbon celebration of breast cancer really means anything they'd been fighting against the defunding of one of the main screening centers, especially for poor women, by the congress. Why are they not demanding cancer causing agents be removed from the products displaying the pink ribbon nonsense. This is a money making operation and I seriously doubt the positive effects it has on "finding a cure". I don't think this massive celebration of breast cancer is the least bit appropriate while women are being denied screening, medical assistance, and continue to die from it.

[PartyOfYes]

08:31 AM on 10/04/2011

I agree with some of what you say - I think the defunding for pre-emptive screenings is shameful. However, I think that you put much to much emphasis on the meaning of the pink ribbon - what it means to corporations and what it means to women with cancer are two different things. As a two time cancer patient - thought I beat it once with chemo, mastectomy & radiation, and two years later it's back as metastic cancer in 4 places. When a woman with breast cancer - and I think you could probably ask just about anyone - sees the pink ribbon it's all about her. I wear my pink ribbon every day - it's like a talisman. You end up fighting most the battles yourself both with your disease, the sickness, symptons and side efffects as well as frequent insurance dust-ups and arguments when you feel like curling up in a ball, so the pink ribbon is also symbolic of our strength and will to live. I agree that it is used as a marketing ploy a little much but that aside, women with cancer see this a symbol dedicated to finding a cure.....which translates into hope. You cannot get through a disease without the hope component and a positive attitude. Pink makes me smile.

[MyrtleJune]

02:59 PM on 10/04/2011

My mother died of breast cancer in 77 and I really am offended by the "celebration of breast cancer" this campaign makes it out to be. Just go to the local safe way store if you want to bask in the glory of breast cancer. It makes me sick!

AND, women with breast cancer founded "Think Before You Pink" which I totally agree with their point of view.

Your strength to fight your personal battles with this disease come from within, not from a pink ribbon. YOU are the strength and YOU are the power to win over this disease.

I'm sorry, but I just do NOT see the numbers going DOWN since '77. IF they were going down, we'd hear less about breast cancer NOT MORE! For all they really know, stressing over possibly getting breast cancer, causes breast cancer. The point is they DON'T KNOW or it wouldn't exist.

Best to you in your battle!

[Sharon Hanson]

11:02 PM on 10/04/2011

I think you should watch Cut Poison Burn. There may still be hope for you but it is not in conventional medicine.

[Justtheobvious]

03:14 AM on 10/04/2011

After the GOP get done with planned parenthood.....

[MexiChick67]

02:46 AM on 10/04/2011

It's pretty obvious that if a woman does not have insurance or the education about prevention that they will not seek out early detection. This is what saves women. In the long run having mammograms would save the tax payer a whole lot more money than waiting for the women to get so sick that they require more care, surgeries, etc.