Thursday 7 March 2013

Fewer African-American deaths from cancer

Carol DeSantis is an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society and lead author of a report regarding African American deaths and cancer. “We see the disparity between black and white men narrowing,” he says, which is due to less lung cancer.  This is a direct result from less cigarette smoking.

Unfortunately, African American men are still diagnosed with cancer 15% more than their white counterparts.  African American women are less likely to develop breast cancer, but more likely to die from it.  Access to screenings is mainly the reason for people not getting care early enough to treat the cancers.

“You’ve got screening for breast cancer, where catching it early improves your outcomes, and screening for colorectal cancer which is preventable,” says DeSantis. “African-Americans are just not getting access to these high-quality screenings that we’ve had over the past few decades.”

For the full article, visit http://thegrio.com/2013/02/05/new-report-fewer-african-american-deaths-from-cancer/. 

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