Black Women In The US Are 42% More Likely To Die From Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Black women.

While Black women have slightly a lower rate of getting breast cancer compared with white women, Black women die from breast cancer at a higher rate, the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network reports.

Additionally, Black women under the age of 35 get breast cancer at two times the rate of white women and die from breast cancer three times as often as white women.

New research is looking at one possible reason for the disparity. “Whether or not you get breast cancer isn’t the disparity. The disparity is whether or not you survive it,” said Dr. Melissa Davis, PHD, Cell and Developmental Biologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, perNewswire. 

Davis and colleagues have identified a set of "variants in the gene DARC ACKR one in women of sub Saharan West African Descent." The researchers found "when breast cancer patients had a lower expression of the gene, their tumors were more aggressive."