Breast Cancer Facts
African Americans
Although Breast Cancer continues to impact people from all backgrounds, there are significant differences with mortality rates among certain racial groups. Statistics show that African American women have a 44% higher mortality rate, giving African Americans the highest death rate and poorest survival rate of any other racial or ethnic group for Breast Cancer in the US. These numbers are alarming & unacceptable.
Triple Negative
“Triple Negative Breast Cancer” generally means that the cancer is Estrogen Receptor negative, Progesterone Receptor negative, and Her2neu negative. This type is an extremely aggressive and fast growing form of Breast Cancer which is more likely to recur and be more fatal than other subtypes. Being that it is unresponsive to most effective treatments, Triple Negative Breast Cancer has one of the worst prognosis and therefore creates an urgent need for targeted research and development. Triple Negative Breast Cancer accounts for many youthful diagnosis and tends to be more common among younger African American women.
BRCA Genetic Mutation
About 12% of all women will develop Breast Cancer sometime in their lives, the National Cancer Institute says. For women with a BRCA mutation, the risk of developing Breast Cancer is between 60% and can be up to 87% according to Myriad Genetics. As for ovarian cancer, about 1.4% of women will have the disease sometime in their lives, according to the National Cancer Institute. But the risk of ovarian cancer for women with a harmful BRCA mutation increases from 15% to 40%.
Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)
IBC is a rare and very aggressive disease in which cancer cells block lymph vessels in the skin of the breast. Compared with other types of Breast Cancer, IBC tends to be diagnosed at younger ages and is more common in African American women. Hormone therapies, such as tamoxifen, that interfere with the growth of cancer cells fueled by estrogen may not be effective against these tumors. IBC progresses rapidly, often in a matter of weeks or months. IBC is either at stage III or IV at diagnosis, depending on whether cancer cells have spread only to nearby lymph nodes or to other tissues as well.