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The scientific evidence is all there! Getting the breast cancer awareness and imaging right first time is a must from college and none college days can prevent death and worries. A touching subject! Getting and dying from breast cancer in the African-American women’s world which has increased to a higher rate than other races (or of Caucasian women of the same age) but especially in the United States in this new twenty-first century, or for decades. What are we not doing right to prevent young and older African-American ladies from breast tumors? Anxiety abundantly for many women health in a recent article published Conversation from research scientist, Georgia State University and Ritu Aneja, Professor of Biology, Georgia State University. The uneven question was asked: Why is breast cancer mortality higher for African-Americans women than for whites women? The findings should in no way be of surprising, but the question should also be asked as to what are being discussed or done to prevent this worrisome disease to individuals and entire family when such is made known, which can be traced right back to say ancient Egypt and even farthest. To the very creation of a woman, from causing such major health concerns among African-American women which can and have been increasingly challenging while causing the silent death rates to increase in African-American women. There could only be one answer, lack of information and the willingness to accept early detection, (don’t be a stubborn bonehead like one of my friends who are under the notion that she is too young to experience the breast cancer symptoms) treatment, therapies and above all the costs. It makes one wonder if all black women in general are facing this health dilemma? The data statistics are definitely not encouraging for African-American women when taken into consideration about breast cancer deaths per 100,000. For instance: in 2014, 20.55 (do the maths) out of every 100,000 American female breast cancer patients died. Black women were much more likely to die than white women in the same age range and with the same financial burden. The numbers are disturbing according to the report. First, some statistics that laid out the extent of the problem. About 1 in 8 American non-Hispanic white women, and about 1 in 9 African-American women will suffer from breast cancer in their lives. While breast cancer is slightly less prevalent in African-American women, it is much more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage in them. About 37 percent of white patients and about a whopping 47 percent of black patients will (bear in mind that the statistics are far greater in countries where financial aides and being diagnosed is skimpy) have cancers that have spread from their breast to nearby lymph nodes at diagnosis. When the disease has spread, it typically presents a greater treatment challenge to the individual and the science. In fact don’t take my words for it since I ain’t no scientist, but the five-year survival rate for breast cancer patients with distant metastasis, (which is a secondary malignant growths at a distance from a primary site of the cancer) or disease that has traveled to another organ such as the liver or bone, is 26.9 percent, as compared to 98.9 percent for those with a localized disease. In addition, the aggressive triple negative type of breast cancer accounts for 12-20 percent of tumors in white women, but about 20-40 percent in black women, based on that plus, it is quite obvious that there is a problem with the early detection ratio, or just plain ignorance to the procedures and knowledge of family medical history (after all, we wasn’t just born yesterday, we come from a mother before her mother and before her mother. Do you understand me?) especially to the fact that every mature black woman and younger ladies should have the awareness of what is known in her race as the triple negative.
Triple negative breast cancer is particularly hard to treat because it does not respond to targeted treatments that have proven to be effective in treating breast cancer cells surfaces. Internal environment must also be considered. Beyond triple negative cancer itself, there also seem to be racial differences in what we call the tumor micro environment of the cancer cells. That is one of the major reason why early detection is so vital since Tumor microenvironment is the immediate cellular environment of the cancer cells. This and including surrounding blood vessels, immune cells, signaling molecules and the tissue matrix that surrounds tumor cells (i.e., the extracellular matrix). Since the tumor microenvironments can affect behavior of the tumor cells and their response to treatments, these racial differences could impact tumor biology and disease progression. Studies have also uncovered racial differences (which also can shine a light on why African-American women are susceptible to tumor than whites) in gene expression patterns of cancer cells, in which genes are over-expressed or under-expressed in the tumor cells of black versus white women. Now it is as plain as daylight that this Triple negative breast cancer cell are not to be taken lightly which are not shy in, showing the heterogeneity of its cells. Heterogeneity of breast cancer also poses challenges for treatment. Kevin Janes/National Cancer Institute, University of Virginia Cancer Center, CC BY-SA, One of the common abnormalities found in cancer cells proliferation within tumors is that they often gain or lose stretches of DNA, which could include multiple genes, or even whole chromosomes that carry hundreds of genes. These are all facts, it is healthy facts and facts is power which can easily influenced by feelings or emotions to a simple solution in knowledge. As a result, cancer cells may harbor higher-than-normal or lower-than-normal copies of genes compared to healthy cells. Daughter cells that arise from such cancer cells form a “clone of cells” that could be genetically different from other such clones within the tumor. When this gain or loss occurs at a fast rate, it results in a tumor with astounding clonal diversity. Such tumors are more likely to harbor clones that can spread very efficiently through the body or resist treatments very staunchly, resulting in a higher risk of death for the patient. Scientists have discovered that breast tumors in black women tend to be more clonally diverse, and therefore harder to treat, than those in white women. The discovery of these biological factors is fairly recent, and research is still ongoing.
The fact is in the breast cancer awareness world, it all comes down to our family’s medical history and the probability of you developing the type of breast cancer that are being discussed here. Many young women in particularly millennials seem to develop a notion, in so taking their health for granted that they’ll not, or their happiness will not be affected by breast cancer, (rare in young women as it may be) which is a form of cancer that originates in breast tissue. It’s a discussion that is worth having continually since many survivors will for certain said: “If only I knew then.” In other parts of the world, many women are suffering from the effects of breast cancer, places like India where the percentage of breast cancer patients is high. As we are today with human societies fucking up the environment from here to ‘Tim-Buck-Two’, The science points to knowledge which point to the ability to perceive, to feel. After all, it is your body with all of the multitude of organs that are inside of that one little body so contains within. You want to be aware of what is happening on the inside that would lead to depression, and what will decrease your chance of living a pleasant long quality life. You’ll certainly want to be aware of genetics which is a wonderful condition for some – passed on from parents to their children through genes. All of the experts on breast cancer and in particularly African-American women do agree that you shouldn’t sit around waiting for a storm since that storm may swept you away. So the point is after decades of research and more research and billions of dollars, the magic word still remains “no permanent cure”, at least for the less well off found. So avoid saying that you’re too young to have breast cancer, unless you are over 100% certain that your gene are super clear from such. Beyond the tumor biology: having other diseases, such as diabetes, also could be not only a risk factor for developing breast cancer but for poorer outcomes, research has shown. Some statistics point to problems outside of the sphere of medicine, however. In the U.S., our present indicator has soon a disturbing fact that about 23.1 percent of black women including well educated African-Americans are still living in poverty, compared to Asian and only 9.6 percent of white women. Studies have shown that a lack of resources makes a huge difference in survival rates, treatment responses, and progression of disease. It makes one wonder how our people survive this disease way back when it wasn’t even given a name. No accurate medical number is available, so I guess these women some are young mothers just folded up and died without proper treatment. Poor women who are on low income or no income are less likely to have good quality health insurance, especially in the U.S., a wealthy country. So I would presume that it is much more difficult in poorer countries for her to receive the kind of assistance, medical education, advice and treatment should so needed) to get as much information on early detection and screening. And to have access to the best health care and the very latest treatments. Another important factor, that is both biological and environmental, is obesity. According to the National Cancer Institute, fat tissue actually makes the hormone estrogen. Exposure to high levels of estrogen over a lifetime do increases the risk of breast cancer.
Furthermore, in the U.S., obesity is strongly linked to poverty, according to the National Institutes of Health. The higher incidence of poverty among African-Americans also has a dramatic impact that affects access to higher-quality, timely care compared to white women. Yeah! This is America the great baby! If you or your main squeeze partner are in a low income bracket, then for sure the above will cause you to be concerned should you ever come to experience that fearful diagnostic procedure or process following by being actually diagnosed with. The search for advances, in future years, we hope we will find specific mechanisms that explain the observed racial differences in breast cancer mortality. Eventually, we the nation believe it will be possible to give each patient customized targeted treatments based on their genetic profile and other factors. Nevertheless, points taken since, HIV/AIDS are still with us. Aha! There are many factors that will need to be addressed to create racial equity in the breast cancer outcomes. Bridging the gap will require a wide range of experts: clinicians, bioinformaticians, diagnosticians and epidemiologists from the science minded world side, (because it is obviously clear that there are many millions of “like African-American women” of all races in the world, and so the cure should be combined together with the added economic factors) but also social scientists and public health experts. Only by joining together for this most important cause can we get the treatment that is best for African-American women. In the meantime, this is the twenty-first century, it’s high time that women take charge, they don’t need or they should stop relying on men to find a cure for this breast cancer problem, especially among black women. But also in the meantime, a healthy diet with total awareness combined with a lifetime of daily exercising routines and total awareness of a clean environment from poverty will go a long way in answering the question. “Why is breast cancer mortality higher for African-American women than for white women?” ….END.