Disparity Matters, Author at Disparity Matters

Insulin Resistance May Contribute to Worse Prognosis in Black Women with Breast Cancer

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Insulin resistance is one factor that contributes to the worse prognosis in breast cancer between black and white women, potentially through direct effects of insulin on the tumor insulin receptor, according to a study of US women with newly diagnosed invasive breast cancer. Because of differences in circulating insulin levels and tumor insulin receptor expression […]

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Why mortality from endometrial cancer may be higher in black women

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Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer, diagnosed in one in 37 U.S. women. But there are known racial disparities in outcomes, as the five-year mortality rate among black women with endometrial cancer is 90% higher than it is among white women. Only 53% of black women with the condition receive an early diagnosis.

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Criteria for lung cancer screening misses many Black smokers

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Screening guidelines for lung cancer by the United States Preventive Services Task Force limit those eligible to smokers aged 55 to 80, who have a 30 pack–year smoking history and who quit no more than 15 years prior to screening. However, this does not accurately reflect the smoking habits of Blacks or their susceptibility to

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Are just four areas in the U.S. responsible for the higher death rate for Black men with prostate cancer?

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National differences in prostate cancer survival between Black and white men may be due to significant disparities in four regions, according to a new study of more than 213,000 men in 17 areas of the United States from 2007 through 2014. Black men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer in 4 of the 17 areas had

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Indigenous American genes may increase risk of aggressive breast cancer

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The greater the proportion of ancestry from Indigenous America a Hispanic woman has, the greater the likelihood that she will be diagnosed with HER-2 positive breast cancer, a more aggressive type of the disease. Indigenous Americans are the pre-Columbian peoples of North, Central and South America and their descendants. This ancestry could help account for

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Preventable Cervical Cancer Is on the Rise in Alabama

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Cervical cancer is now viewed by most physicians as preventable, and in more affluent parts of the country it is correspondingly rare. But in the poorer pockets of less wealthy states it remains disturbingly common. Women who develop cervical cancer in Alabama are more likely to die than their counterparts in any other state—and in

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“African-American women less likely to receive evidence-based care for endometrial cancer”

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“Even if African-American women receive evidence-based care, it may mitigate but does not completely eliminate the survival disparities that we saw based on race,” says Jason D Wright (above) of Columbia University’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York. “We still need to work and look at other factors that may be responsible for

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Are Hispanic women second most common group to carry BRCA gene mutations?

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Latinas are the second most common ethnic group to carry BRCA1 deleterious mutations, after Ashkenazi Jewish women, among all patients with breast cancer. However, Latinas are less likely to receive genetic counseling education, referrals, and testing services and have the least awareness of genetic testing compared to non-Hispanic whites and other minority populations. Research indicates

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Blacks and Hispanics less likely to receive recommended lung cancer imaging

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African American patients with non-small cell lung cancer were only about half as likely as whites to receive PET-CT imaging which helps doctors match patients with the best treatments. Hispanics received this imaging about 70 percent as frequently as whites. “If African Americans and Hispanics aren’t getting the best imaging, this could be a piece

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Most Asian American women with lung cancer have never smoked

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Why Asian American women who never smoked tend to get lung cancer has perplexed researchers for years. “The phenomenon among Chinese is that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death of Asian women, but nearly 90% of Chinese women with lung cancer have never smoked,” said Moon Chen, a nationally known expert in

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