American Cancer Society begins 30-year study of 100,000 black women's case and death rates

The American Cancer Society "has begun an ambitious, far-reaching study focusing on a population that has long been overlooked, despite high rates of cancer and cancer-related deaths: black women." 

That's the lead of a story by Roni Caryn Rabin in recent editions of The New York Times on an initiative called VOICES of Black Women that noted it's "believed to be the first long-term population study of its size to zero in specifically on the factors driving cancer prevalence and deaths among black women."

Researchers plan to enroll black women without cancer, ages 25 to 55, in D.C. and 20 states where most black women live.

Black women, the story says, have the highest death rates and lowest survival rates for many cancers of any racial or ethnic group. They die of uterine cancer at twice the rate of white women, and are "twice as likely to be diagnosed with stomach cancer and more than twice as likely to die of it," Rabin's piece notes. "They are also 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer."

Dr. Alpa Patel

Racial disparities in breast cancer are relatively new. The Times story quotes Dr. Alpa Patel, senior vice president of population science at the ACS and co-principal investigator of the VOICES study, as saying that "until the 1970s, there was no disparity in breast cancer outcomes between black and white women. We know now there are more aggressive tumors, especially at younger ages in black women compared to white women, and we don't fully understand why."

Women in the study will be surveyed on their use of personal care products, "including hair straighteners, which have been implicated in some cancers," the article reports. In addition, researchers "will track stressors related to the physical environment, and facts such as neighborhood walkability, crime, air pollution, access to healthy food, and proximity to liquor stores and establishments that sell cigarettes."

More information on racial disparity can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.