Health
Breast Cancer: A Major Health Concern for Black Women
By Zachary Lester and
Maria Adebola
Special to the NNPA
from the Afro-
American Newspaper
COURTESY PHOTO
W
hen
Linda
Williams
first
learned that she
had breast cancer, she felt
doomed.
“Cancer seems always
associated with death,”
Williams said. “I was feel-
ing defeated, like I had to
succumb.”
October is National Breast
Cancer Awareness Month.
National public service
organizations, professional
medical associations, and
government agencies work
together to promote the
need for women to conduct
monthly breast self-exams,
have annual mammograms
and take control of their
breast health.
According to the Ameri-
can Cancer Society, in 2013
about 232,340 new cases of
invasive breast cancer will
be diagnosed in women and
about 39,620 women will
die from breast cancer.
There are more than 2.8
million breast cancer sur-
vivors in the United States.
Breast cancer is of partic-
ular concern to African-
American women, officials
said. Though White women
are slightly more likely to
develop breast cancer than
African-American women,
in women under 45, breast
cancer is more common in
African Americans.
African-American women
also are more likely to die of
breast cancer than other
groups, statistics show.
“Their tumors often are
found at a later, more
advanced stage,” according
to womenshealth.org. “So,
there are fewer treatment
options. Some other reasons
for this may include not
being able to get health care
or not following-up after
getting
abnormal
test
results. Other reasons may
include distrust of the health
care system, the belief that
mammograms are not need-
ed, or not having insurance.
Also, research has shown
that
African-American
women are more likely to
get a form of breast cancer
that spreads more quickly.”
More prevalent among
African-American women
who suffer from the disease
is Triple Negative Breast
Cancer, which is more diffi-
cult to treat, officials said
According to breast can-
cer statistics, about 85
percent of breast cancers
occur in women who have
no family history of the dis-
ease, due to genetic
mutations that happen as a
result of aging, research
shows.
Several Baltimore-area
women described their
encounters with the dreaded
disease.
Northeast Baltimore resi-
Breast cancer survivor
Linda Williams.
dent Rhonda Adams, 67,
was diagnosed with having
cancer in her left breast in
1993.
“My life flashed before
my eyes,” she said. “I lost
all sense of reality.”
She opted to have the
breast removed, then began
treatment. She said a
“strong support system and
prayer got me through it.”
Roslyn Rogers, 61, of
Baltimore, was diagnosed in
May. She had a double mas-
tectomy in August.
“It was like I heard echoes
when he said it was cancer,”
she said. “I didn’t hear any-
thing he said after that. It
took me about three or four
days to face reality.”
Williams had no family
history of cancer when she
was diagnosed with inflam-
matory breast cancer in
2007.
According
to
The best tool,
though, is
early breast
cancer
screening
the National Cancer Insti-
tute, inflammatory breast
cancer is a rare and very
aggressive disease also
more common and diag-
nosed at younger ages in
African American women
than in White women.
This type of breast cancer
is called “inflammatory”
because symptoms of the
cancer include swelling, and
redness that affects a third
or more of the breast.
Williams said she had
noticed some redness on her
breast, but she never paid
attention to it. Then, one
morning when she was
casually stretching, she
noticed something when her
hand ran across her right
breast.
November 6, 2013
“When I found the lump
on my right breast, I went to
my doctor and within a
week it was confirmed that I
had cancer,” she said. “I was
diagnosed with stage three,
which means it had spread
to my lymph nodes.”
Doctors
ordered
an
aggressive treatment regi-
men, including several
weeks of chemotherapy,
which she said, “took a toll”
on her body.
“I was always tired,” she
said.
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