Although mortality rates are down overall, progress has not been experienced by all women, with racial disparities still seen
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Oct. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Upward trends in breast cancer incidence among women have continued, according to a study published online Oct. 1 in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
Angela N. Giaquinto, M.S.P.H., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues presented the biennial update of statistics on breast cancer among women using incidence and mortality data from the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The authors note that the upward trend in breast cancer incidence continued, rising by 1 percent annually during 2012 to 2021, which was mostly confined to localized-stage and hormone receptor-positive disease. In White women only, the steeper increase seen in women younger than 50 years versus those aged 50 years and older was significant (1.4 versus 0.7 percent). The fastest increase in both age groups occurred in Asian American/Pacific Islander women (2.7 and 2.5 percent per year, respectively). During 1989 to 2022, the overall breast cancer death rate decreased by 44 percent overall, resulting in 517,900 fewer breast cancer deaths. This progress has not been experienced by all women; since 1990, mortality remained unchanged in American Indian/Alaska Native women. Furthermore, despite 5 percent lower incidence, Black women have 38 percent higher mortality than White women. Black women have the lowest survival for every breast cancer subtype and stage, except localized disease, with which they are 10 percent less likely to be diagnosed than White women.
“This progress is the result of advances in treatment and earlier detection through screening,” the authors write. “However, these interventions have not been disseminated equally.”
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