Breast Cancer: Understanding some factors contributing to increased fatalities among African women

Feature by Joycelyn Kyei-Baffuor Breast cancer is the most common cancer type in women, both in the developed and less developed world.

Data from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation points to the fact that while breast cancer incidence rates among Africans and White women are close, mortality rates are markedly different, with Black women having a 40 percent higher death rate from breast cancer.

Among women under 50, the disparity is even greater: while young women have a higher incidence of aggressive cancers, young African women have double the mortality rate of young White women.

Although advances in early detection and treatment have dramatically reduced breast cancer's ability to take lives overall, it is clear that these breakthroughs haven't benefitted all groups equally - and this disparity has remained unchanged for more than a decade.