Breast Cancer Disparities: A Case Study

Improved Essays
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines cancer health disparities as differences in cancer incidence, cancer prevalence, cancer death, cancer survivorship, and burden of cancer or related health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States (Cancer Health Disparities). This paper will focus on the cancer disparities among African American women diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer is a disease in which cells become abnormal and form more cells in an uncontrolled way. With breast cancer, the cancer begins in the tissues that make up the breasts. The cancer cells may form a mass called a tumor. Getting a mammogram can help find the cancer early. This gives a woman more treatment options and makes it more likely …show more content…
This issue has been prevalent for a very long time and there are many contributing factors that lead to this cancer disparity. Ten percent of African American women are diagnosed before the age of forty, as compared to their Caucasian peers whose diagnostic percentage is five percent (Jones, 2015). At the onset of diagnosis, African American women tend to display a more aggressive type of cancer and this is the result of: beliefs and a lack of pre-cancer screenings, insufficient education, and socioeconomic status. The most common sign of breast cancer is a new lump or mass. A painless, hard mass that has irregular edges is more likely to be cancerous, but breast cancers can be tender, soft, or rounded. For this reason, it is important that you have any new breast mass or lump checked by a health care professional experienced in diagnosing breast diseases. In order to help change this disparity, more education, marketing, and outreach needs to be established in communities that serve a large population of African American

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The diagnosis of breast cancer is one of the most dreaded words that a woman could hear out of a doctor’s mouth. It affects on in eight women in the United States (McCartney, Davidson, & Alic, 2015). This is a prevalent problem, particularly in African American women. They are much more likely by 40% to die of the illness than their Caucasian counterparts (McCartney et al., 2015). However, a diagnosis does not necessarily equate to a death sentence.…

    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.282.6.583 LaVeist TA, Carroll T. Race of physician and satisfaction with care among African-American patients. J Natl Med Assoc 2002;94:937–43. Carter J, Park ER, Moadel A, Cleary SD, Morgan C. Cancer knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices (KABP) of disadvantaged women in the South Bronx. J Cancer Educ 2002; Winstead-Fry P, Hernandez CG, Colgan GM, et al.…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mammogram Synthesis Essay

    • 1017 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I always tell my patients you don’t get to pick if cancer will be a part of your life, but it gets to pick you. Each year, more than 200,000 women in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and nearly 40,000 women are expected to die from the disease. (Komen Foundation) Through education and perseverance from many groups, such as American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, American College of Radiology, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists there has been a decline in the rate of deaths due to breast cancer. Breast cancer is still the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, exceeded by lung cancer. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists at first had agreed with the US Task Force’s guideline changes in 2009 but by the end of 2011 they saw how the information didn’t add up.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    by nearly ⅓ since 1990.” “One in six breast cancers occur in women aged 40-49” “¾ of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease and are not considered high risk.” “Even for women 50+, skipping a mammogram every other year would miss up to 30% of cancers.” “For every 1,000 women who have a screening mammogram, 100 are recalled to get more mammography or ultrasound pictures, 20 are recommended to have a needle biopsy, and 5 are diagnosed with breast cancer.”…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Breast Self Assessment

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Research Questions According to statistics, early detection of the disease through self-examination and screening greatly improves mortality rate, nevertheless, a segment of the populace continues to suffer higher death rates. This has been found to be largely due to discovery of the disease at an advanced stage caused by a variety of reasons such as low income, lack of access to care, lack of a usual health care provider, lack of recommendation from a provider to get mammography screening, and lack of awareness of breast cancer risks and screening methods (rephrase). In response to these barriers, Breast and Cervical Early detection programs have been instituted to provide early detection testing to low-income, underserved, under-insured and uninsured women in the US (reference).…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Health Advocacy Breast cancer has a devastating impact on women. In fact, breast cancer leads our nation in mortality related conditions of women aged forty to forty-nine (Up to Date, 2016). Breast cancer advocacy will be selected for this health advocacy campaign and project. This document will review proposed policy enhancements that involve the adoption of mandated high-risk cancer screening, minimization of out-of-pocket expenses, and investments in population-based effectiveness research. Moreover, tactics that facilitate policy optimization through the use of current legislation and lobbying opportunities in Michigan will be explored.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    This article focused on the lack of standardization of the pathology tissue as well as stage, grade, poverty index, and treatment factors and compensated for these. These factors could certainly explain racial differences in survival among the breast cancer subtypes. What is currently known is African-American women have a lower lifetime risk of breast cancer but their mortality rates are significantly higher when compared to white American women. It is also known that the age at which they are diagnosed differ, African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed under that age of forty-five in comparison with Caucasian women. Additionally African-American women’s tumors are much more likely to be negative for the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor, and/or the HER2/neu marker (Amirikia 2011).…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aflond Cancer Case Study

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It is a need to educate people on breast cancers, the American Cancer Society has established guidelines to for early detection. Women who are around the age of twenty and over should complete self-breast exam on a monthly basis. Women that are between the ages of twenty to forty should have a breast exam done every three years by a physician. Women should have a mammogram by the…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Discrepancy Of Lung Cancer

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Can we as a country say we have made real progress in our fight against lung cancer if one part of the population continues to be left behind? Despite the reductions in tobacco use and the wider availability for more effective treatments, which have helped improve the outcomes for battling men and women alike, the truth is that Black Americans continue to be disproportionately affected by higher cancer mortality rates. The 5-year relative survival rate for lung cancer, which is often used as the standard for measuring the efficacy of cancer treatment, is 13% for Black patients in comparison to 16% for whites. This discrepancy highlights a fundamental problem, as it is clear Black patients are dying at a higher rate due to the disease. The National…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cancer does not discriminate, weather you are white, black, young, old, rich, poor, man or women, it affects everyone and threatens anyone. Even with all the modern advances in medicine, cancer is still a battle however new research and new medications constantly being tested gives us hope. Hope that people like my grandmother, who passed away from ovarian cancer never dreamed. Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer in the United States.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the United State of America, breast cancer screening starts at early age. According to American cancer society guideline, there is clinical breast exam or self-breast exam available for 20-30 years old americans every three years and once a year for over 40s. Mammogram is recommended every year starting from 40-year olds until they are in good health. The screening process is mainly through health insurance. However, there are also funding aids for low income and uninsured women through National breast and cervical cancer early detection program.…

    • 1871 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyone knows about Breast cancer these days, due to the fact that every day we have seen lots of organizations working for this sole purpose. Every now and then we meet or hear someone struggling with this devastating type of cancer which is more prevalent in women. According to the recent facts and figures from American Cancer Society about the number of deaths from breast cancer in US in 2013, among all ages has gone up to 39,620. This seems like a huge number, but if we look at the mortality trend from 1990-2010, we can see the death rate has been decrease to 34%. So we all know the reason behind this decline i.e. the improvements in our health care system in terms of treatment as well as the early detection of breast cancer.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cancer Screening Programs That Lead To Successful Outcomes Many cancers are treatable with early detection and treatment. Promoting cancer screening is an important step to improving health outcomes. Finding successful secondary prevention tools that work to identify and treat populations is the key to a healthy society (Kovner & Knickman, 2011). Over the last 40 years, increased knowledge about how cancers develop has spurred the increase of preventative screenings for cancers that could develop in stages including a period of in situ status.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction When I read chapter seven of Margaret Anderson’s 2015 book Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender, I was struck by how passionate she was about many of the topics covered, especially women’s reproductive rights. The passion and indignation in her writing made me much more interested in the material. For this reason, I have decided to write my response paper on chapter seven, “Women, Health and Reproduction.” Breast Cancer Race On page 205 of the chapter, Anderson talks about breast cancer.…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Racial and ethnic disparities have long marred the dissemination of health information and the availability, delivery, and quality of care. Despite efforts to reduce such inequalities, disease diagnosis and treatment remain at the forefront of community health intervention research. This issue is exemplified by incidences of breast cancer among African American women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, non-Hispanic White women are diagnosed with breast cancer at a rate of 128.1 women per 100,000 of the population, while African American women are diagnosed at a rate of 124.3 per 100,000 (American Cancer Society, 2015). Moreover, African American women are significantly more likely to die as a result of breast cancer than non-Hispanic White women (at a respective rate 31.0 and 21.9 per 100,000 of the population)…

    • 1660 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays