Gap narrows in black, white breast cancer rates

Breast cancer incidence rates are converging among white and African-American women, according to an analysis to be published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Between 2006 and 2010, breast cancer rates increased slightly among African-American women, bringing those rates closer to the historically higher rates among white women -- although why this is happening is unclear, the researchers noted.

Lead author Carol DeSantis, from the American Cancer Society, and colleagues found that incidence rates increased for estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers in younger white women, Hispanic women in their 60s, and all but the oldest African-American women. However, estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancers declined among most age and racial/ethnic groups.

In 2010, 67% of U.S. women 40 and older reported having a mammogram within the past two years, according to the report. The mammography screening rate peaked in 2000, declined slightly, and has been stable since 2005. In general, those states with higher rates of mammography screening had fewer late-stage breast cancers diagnosed among white women.

Despite similar overall screening rates, African-American women have remained more likely to be diagnosed with regional and distant-stage breast cancers compared with white women, which may reflect differences in the quality of mammography screening and delayed follow-up for abnormal mammography findings, DeSantis and colleagues wrote.