According to a retrospective study published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, when both black and white women received regular breast cancer screening (a mammogram within 2 years of breast cancer diagnosis) there was no disparity in the number of women who presented with late-stage disease.
Previous studies have shown that, more often than white women, black women with breast cancer are more likely to have larger and more aggressive tumors that reach the disease’s late stages.
This retrospective study conducted at Rush University Medical Center and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago included 1642 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer from January 2001 to December 2006. Of the participants, 980 were regularly screened and 662 were irregularly screened.
“This study reinforces the fact that racial gaps in breast cancer outcomes can be improved,” said lead author Dr Paula Grabler, an assistant professor of radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a radiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “One solution within reach is simple access to routine and regular mammography screening.”
A noteworthy study finding was that, regardless of race, women who were screened regularly were more likely to have hormone receptor–positive breast cancers than those receiving irregular screenings. Statistically significant in black women, this finding suggests that early detection can diminish the development of negative prognostic biological characteristics in some women.
“This suggests that poor prognostic biological factors such as receptor status and tumor grade, once thought to be innate and immutable, may be significantly ameliorated by regular mammography screening, especially in black women,” said Dr David Ansell, the study’s senior author and chief medical officer at Rush University Medical Center.
Source: Rush University Medical Center.
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