A Number of Black Women with Advanced Breast Cancer Shown to Refuse Treatments

2009-05-25 00:49:09 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Health & Fitness, News)

New study finds that black women with breast cancer refuse certain treatments at high rates

A study finds that many African American women with advanced breast cancer refuse radiation and chemotherapy.

Wired PR News – A new study suggests that African American women with advanced breast cancer refuse some potentially life-saving treatments at a high rate. As reported by HealthDay News, an estimated 25 percent of black women who have breast cancer in the advanced stages are said to refuse to have chemotherapy and radiation treatments, in accordance with the study findings.

Dr. Monica Rizzo, the lead researcher of the study recently published in the online Cancer journal, is quoted in the report as stating, “We found in this study on locally advanced breast cancer, mainly done in black women, that almost a quarter of the patients [refused] chemotherapy and radiation therapy that are the standard of care for stage 3 breast cancer.” Rizzo is further quoted as stating in regards to difficulty in identifying a reason for the outcome, “We looked at martial status, as well as religious background, of those women and, unfortunately, we were not able to find any clear identifier.”

As noted in the HealthDay report, black women are shown to have advanced breast cancer at twice the rate of white women, mainly due to late diagnosis.

Photo Credit: NIH Senior Health