Breast Cancer and Women of African descent.
Plus Q &A
Saturday 10 March 7.00pm to 9.00pm
Tube: Walthamstow Entry: £5.00 only pay on the door
Register your attendance by email or phone for adress details: thinktank_27@yahoo.com
or 07958 671 267 or 07956 337 391. Contribution £5.00
Black women develop breast cancer two decades earlier than white women, the first UK study looking at the differences suggests.
Researchers found that black patients were diagnosed with breast cancer aged 46 on average while white patients were diagnosed at an average age of 67.
The study, published online in the British Journal of Cancer, involved 102 black British women and 191 white women diagnosed with breast cancer at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, East London, between 1994 and 2005. Researchers, based at the Institute of Cancer and Cancer Research UK clinical centre at Barts and the London, also found that survival was poorer among black women with smaller tumours.
In addition, their early findings suggest that tumours in the younger black patients were more likely to be aggressive, and a higher proportion of tumours were basal-like – meaning they were less likely to respond to newer types of targeted breast cancer treatments like Herceptin.Study author Dr Rebecca Bowen, said 25 per cent of all breast cancer cases diagnosed in London during the study period were in women aged 45 or younger.However, this figure rose to 45 per cent among the black population in Hackney
This presentation on March 10 aims to empower women with information to help defeat breast cancer. Peviously delivered at the Science museum, it will cover:
- The reality of risk rates for black women; how white women skew the risk indicators
- 5 steps you can take to reduce your risk ,
- How not breast feeding can increase your risk
- What food and lifestyles increase liability
- The signs that ensure early detection.
- The experience of Black women within the health system
- How such information is made difficult to access (there has only ever been one study on how cancer affects black women in the UK)