Many Black Breast Cancer Patients Refuse Treatment About 20 percent of Black women with late-stage breast cancer refuse chemotherapy, and about 25 percent refuse radiation therapy, according to a new report. Experts say that if they are to address the high refusal rate, more research is needed to ascertain why they are rejecting the recommended treatments. Further Dr. Monica Rizzo, from Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues found that about 6 percent to 7 percent of invasive breast cancers diagnosed each year in the United States are at stage III. The racial distribution, however, is far from equal. African-American women are twice as likely as Whites to be diagnosed with the disease. The researchers reviewed data for all women diagnosed with or treated for this disease at one inner-city hospital between 2000 and 2006. “Of 107 stage III breast cancers identified, 93 (86.9 percent) were in African-American women,” according the article in Cancer. “Patients with stage III cancer were significantly younger than patients with other types of stage III disease. Nearly 30 percent of cancers were triple negative tumors, which were most often seen with inflammatory breast cancers.” Twenty percent of the Black women refused chemotherapy and 23.6 percent refused radiotherapy. For non-African American women, the corresponding rates were 21.4 percent and 14.2 percent, according to Cancer. “At our institution, to overcome this high refusal rate, we have implemented a community outreach and internal navigational program to assure adherence to standard multimodalities therapy,” the authors note. “We strongly believe that these prospectively implemented interventions based on this and other studies at our center can significantly improve outcome in these advanced breast cancer patients.”

About 20 percent of Black women with late-stage breast cancer refuse chemotherapy, and about 25 percent refuse radiation therapy, according to a new report. Experts say that if they are to address the high refusal rate, more research is needed to ascertain why they are rejecting the recommended treatments. Further Dr. Monica Rizzo, from Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues found that about 6 percent to 7 percent of invasive breast cancers diagnosed each year in the United States are at stage III. The racial distribution, however, is far from equal. African-American women are twice as likely as Whites to be diagnosed with the disease. The researchers reviewed data for all women diagnosed with or treated for this disease at one inner-city hospital between 2000 and 2006. “Of 107 stage III breast cancers identified, 93 (86.9 percent) were in African-American women,” according the article in Cancer. “Patients with stage III cancer were significantly younger than patients with other types of stage III disease. Nearly 30 percent of cancers were triple negative tumors, which were most often seen with inflammatory breast cancers.” Twenty percent of the Black women refused chemotherapy and 23.6 percent refused radiotherapy. For non-African American women, the corresponding rates were 21.4 percent and 14.2 percent, according to Cancer. “At our institution, to overcome this high refusal rate, we have implemented a community outreach and internal navigational program to assure adherence to standard multimodalities therapy,” the authors note. “We strongly believe that these prospectively implemented interventions based on this and other studies at our center can significantly improve outcome in these advanced breast cancer patients.”

Breast cancer screening is occurring far too late for most African American women, according to a new study in the Journal of American College of Surgeons. In fact, the study shows, one in 10 women will already have advanced breast cancer when it is first detected if current screening recommendations are maintained. “We believe that African American women may consider earlier breast cancer screening, possibly starting around 33-35 years of age,” Dr. Leonidas G. Koniaris, of the University of Miami, told Reuters Health. “It is at this age that the incidence of breast cancer in African American patients equals that for Caucasian women at 40 years of age, the suggested age to start screening.” Koniaris and his colleagues identified 63,472 breast cancer patients between 1998 and 2002 on analysis of a Florida cancer registry and inpatient hospital data. Of these, 90.5 percent were White and 7.6 percent were African American, Reuters reports. Black women had cancer at a younger age and with more advanced disease on first diagnosis. They also found that more than 10 percent presented with breast cancer before the age of 40, and 22.4 percent before age 45 years. African-American patients were also less likely to receive surgery. “Based upon our study, African-American women have a 1.72-fold increased risk of death from breast cancer,” Koniaris said. “Approximately two-thirds of this excess risk is attributable to late stage presentation.”

Your tax dollars may be paying for unauthorized drugs. Tax dollars paid for $200 million in drugs that were never reviewed by the government for safety and effectiveness, an Associated Press investigation has found. The drugs give people a false sense of security, but they are also responsible for dozens of deaths, health officials say. Even so, millions of private patients who qualify for the low-income health care program are taking such drugs, and the government is picking up the tab, according to AP’s analysis of government data. The medications date back decades, before the Food and Drug Administration tightened its review process for drugs in the early 1960s, AP says. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the drugs to the Medicaid health program to pay for them. Medicaid officials acknowledge the problem, but say they need Congress to fix loopholes in the laws that allow the unauthorized drugs to continue to qualify for payment.

Teen HIV rate jumps 45 percent in Central Ohio. The number of Central Ohio teenagers and young adults infected with HIV has mushroomed by 45 percent in three years, according to local figures. Of all the Franklin County women living with HIV, nearly three-quarters are African American. As dozens of countries commemorate World AIDS Day on December 1, Central Ohioans need to be reminded that the epidemic continues right here at home. The Ohio Department of Health reports that HIV infections in Central Ohio match the dramatic increases nationwide, especially in African Americans, youth, and women, local officials say. Between 2003 and 2006, the highest new infection rates in Central Ohio were among youth (ages 13-25), up nearly 45 percent. Infections among individuals ages 25-34 were up about 10 percent, and individuals ages 45-64 were up 13 percent. The number of new HIV infection diagnoses in the African American population jumped 22 percent. African American women are disproportionately affected, making up close to 75 percent of all women diagnosed in Franklin County. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than one million Americans are living with HIV. More than a quarter of them don’t even know they are infected. For more on HIV, what causes it, and whether your perceptions about the disease and people who have it are spot on or a little off, see the BET.com/Body & Soul feature “Are You Positive?”

 Young Black women have higher breast cancer rates. The incidence of breast cancer among African-American women under 40 is higher than for White women of the same age, according to the results of an analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on Friday. The researchers studied more than 300,000 cases of breast cancer based on age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, racial and ethnic categories, and pathologic features of the cancer. They found that although White women had higher incidence rates than Black women after age 40, the reverse was true for younger women. In women under 40, the incidence rate per 100,000 woman-years was approximately 17 for Black women, compared with approximately 15 for white women. The discrepancy was even higher for women under age 30. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States, with about 180,000 cases diagnosed each year. Problems with early screening, which lead to later diagnoses, and access to care have negatively affected Black women’s survival rates, experts say. While mammogram breast screenings are generally advised for women age 40 and old, if the incidence of breast cancer in younger women continues to trend upward, health officials may have to identify either preventive or better screening approaches, including the identification of early risk factors, in younger women. Experts are also studying whether genetics play a role in the higher rates of breast cancer for younger Black women. For more info on breast cancer go to BET.com/lifestye/Body & Soul. 

For many people, today could be the day the quit. Today marks the American Cancer Society’s 33rd Great American Smokeout, a day when smokers are encouraged to not smoke for at least one day in the hope that they can quit permanently. Many Americans are expected to observe the Smokeout by refusing to light up a cigarette. Smoking one pack a day, means you’re spending about $2,000 to $3,000 a year, according to one estimate. November is also Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness about the most devastating side-effect of smoking: lung cancer. Lung cancer killed 160,390 people last year, an average of 439 people a day, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. It is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people annually than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.  So how do you fight the urge? Well for starters you can build a support system for yourself, health officials say. Or use a buddy system, so you have someone to call. Try to stay busy so you’re not thinking about your next drag.

Exercise can cut a woman’s breast cancer risk. Here’s yet another benefit of working out: for women, it reduces your breast cancer risk by 20 percent. Women who got regular exercise, according to a study of more than 32,000 postmenopausal women, cut their risk of breast cancer by 30 percent. “Possible mechanisms through which physical activity may protect against breast cancer that are independent of BMI [body mass index] include reduced exposure to growth factors, enhanced immune function, and decreased chronic inflammation, variables that are related both to greater physical activity and to lower breast cancer risk,” said the authors, who published their findings in the journal of Breast Cancer Research.  However, there was a caveat.  The benefits of exercise were whipped out of women who did not get enough sleep. In some cases, women’s breast cancer risk actually increased by 50 percent in women who got less than 7 hours of sleep a night, the authors said.  Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death and is the sixth most-common cause of death for women of all ages in the U.S. While African-American women do not get breast cancer at a greater rate than White women, when they do get it they die at higher rates than White women do, according to federal statistics.

. People who eat too many sweet foods increase their obesity risk, a new study found. Eating too much fructose – a sugar found in foods ranging from cookies to candies and soda – can block the appetite-controlling hormone leptin from doing its job and increase the risk of obesity, a University of Florida study of rats suggests. Leptin resistance has long been linked to obesity, and a number of studies have shown that eating too many sugary foods laced with the corn-based sweetener may be an important factor in the United States’ obesity epidemic. This new study is the first to link fructose and leptin resistance, reports HealthDay.

The gap is growing between Black and White Chicago women dying from breast cancer.  Since 1980, when Black and White women in Chicago with breast cancer were equally likely to die, the death rates for White breast cancer patients have dramatically improved. But Black women have seen no such improvements, and in fact are dying at 116 percent higher rates than Whites in Chicago, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force. In fact, the gap has widened, the report says. Last year, the group analyzed data through 2003 and found a 68 percent higher death rate for Black women over those of Whites. Experts say genetics or biology alone cannot explain the difference. The racial gap in Chicago was twice that of the United States and sevenfold that of New York City, according to the researchers, who were from Sinai Urban Health Institute and who looked at vital records through 2005, obtained from the Illinois Department of Public Health. “It was as if no screening or treatment was going on for black women, which we knew was not true,” said Dr. David Ansell, chairman of the task force, made up of 74 health-care groups and more than 100 breast cancer physicians, researchers and advocates. Black women are less likely to get mammograms, the task force says. When they do, the mammograms are more likely to be of inferior quality. Those diagnosed with cancer also are less likely to have access to quality treatment. For more on Black women and breast cancer go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

High blood pressure is on the rise. Increasingly, more Americans are being diagnosed and treated for high blood pressure, recent studies by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute have shown. High blood pressure, by itself, can cause major problems, and is a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Also, high blood pressure is diagnosed in obese patients. The institute’s numbers were collected from two National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys, done between 1988 and 1994, respectively 1999 and 2004. After analyzing the data and interpreting the results, the researchers found that women experience higher blood pressure after the age of 40, and men after the age of 60. In the decade prior to 2004, Americans experienced a 5.2 percent increase in high blood pressure cases. However, in the 30,781 cases studied, 72 percent knew they had the disease, 61 percent were in treatment and 35 percent were able to keep their blood pressure in check.

Robin Roberts had an “all-time low” after chemotherapy.  While undergoing chemo treatments for breast cancer, Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts says she reached an all-time low.  “I was in a really bad place,” she tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t want to fake it [on TV].”  Roberts, 47, decided to take off the last three weeks of the year – the longest break she had taken since her diagnosis last July. “I needed more rest. It was too much,” she says, especially given her grueling up-before-dawn work schedule. “I don’t recommend anyone going through chemo get up at 4 a.m.”  By December, the treatment had become an emotional drain. “I was mourning the loss of my health,” says Roberts. But she rebounded quickly after her year-end respite. “I think taking long walks really helped,” she says. “And I circled Jan. 10, the day of my last chemo treatment, on the calendar so I had a goal, an end in sight.”

Two of every three Black men are overweight. Two of every three men, four out of five women and one in five children in the Black community are overweight, according to the  50 Million Pound Challenge, which seeks to reduce obesity and encourage healthy lifestyles in the Black community.  Fitness expert and physician Ian Smith said he began the program last year to provide a “national platform” for healthier living among Blacks, reports The Washington Post.  Smith said that the campaign’s challenge for 50 million pounds of weight loss can be met if 25 percent of the 20 million Blacks in the United States who are considered overweight or obese each lost 10 pounds (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 4/5/07). More than 690,000 people across the nation have joined the challenge since April 2007, and almost three million pounds have been lost. Smith said, “What we are trying to do is not only to get people to lose weight, but to get them to take a better look at the choices that are directly impacting their physical and spiritual health.” He added, “Poor lifestyle choices and cultural entrenchments have, unfortunately, made African Americans extremely vulnerable to a wide range of diseases that are in many cases life-threatening.” 

A quarter of teen girls have gotten cervical cancer vaccine.  About a quarter of the nation’s teenage girls received the controversial cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil last year in its first full year of distribution, federal authorities said Thursday. “For a new vaccine, 25 percent is really very good,” Lance Rodewald, director of the division of immunization services at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a telephone news conference releasing the data. “We need to see that rate every year if we are going to meet our goal” of having 90 percent of teenagers vaccinated, he said.But immunologist W. Martin Kast of USC’s Keck School of Medicine said, “Twenty-five percent is not bad, but it’s not good either.” He told The Associated Press that the numbers released earlier in the year by Gardasil’s manufacturer, Merck & Co., show that only about 1 percent of Latina teens were receiving the vaccine, and “they are the population that needs it the most” because the frequency of infection is relatively high. Researchers said the percentage of teens receiving two other relatively new vaccines also went up. About 32 percent of teenagers received the meningitis vaccine, up from 20 percent; and 30 percent received the tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough vaccine, up from 19 percent.  The CDC recommends that girls get the cervical cancer vaccine and that all children get the other two when they are 11 or 12. The vaccine protects against four strains of human papilloma virus that account for about 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer in the United States. But the vaccine has been criticized on a number of fronts. Some scientists argue that it is only modestly effective and that its safety has not been adequately proved. Conservative groups say that giving it to young girls implies approval of sexual activity. And consumer advocates bemoan its high price – $360 for a series of three shots.
S. Africa quarantines 100. Health authorities in South Africa are on high alert, quarantining more than 100 people who are suspected of coming into contact with a mysterious virus that has killed at least three people in Johannesburg. The World Health Organization has been asked to help South Africa’s health authorities find the cause of the deadly disease. They only became aware of the outbreak after the deaths of a paramedic and a nurse. Both medical attendants treated a woman from Zambia who died with similar symptoms, including internal and external bleeding. Doctors suspect the cause is a hemorrhagic fever, but they have so far failed to make a definitive diagnosis. Authorities have reassured the public that the suspected virus has been contained. More than 100 people are under close medical observation.
Gabrielle Union speaks out about breast cancer. Actress Gabrielle Union is speaking out about breast cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness Month as her best friend struggles with the disease. Read more about why she’s so passionate about the fight against breast cancer at BET.com/Body & Soul.

Too few minorities could hurt science. Women, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and that the result could hurt the nation as a whole, a Fortune 1000 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) survey found. The findings of the study should alarm the next president of the United States, researchers said. Minorities could be the saving grace of America if this country is going to keep its place as the leader in the science and technology industry, the report noted. “What is most dramatic about this survey is the extent to which the Fortune executives speak with one unequivocal voice on these issues,” said Dr. Attila Molnar, president and CEO of Bayer Corporation. “Almost without exception, they overwhelmingly recognize this country’s great need to tap the potential of the entire [science and technology] talent pool, and the importance of doing so at every point on the development continuum beginning in elementary school with high-quality, hands-on, inquiry-based science education, on through college where … talent is refined and recruited, and then into the workplace where it must be further nurtured and encouraged.” Molnar and other executives believe that African Americans are being exposed to science at an early enough age to pique student’s interests. Chicago native Dr. Mae Jemison, who was also the first African-American woman to travel into outer space, agrees and said more has to be done to find talent in the Black community. The report further stated that diversifying the STEM talent pool is one solution to the problem of understaffing. Nearly 55 percent of the Fortune executives say their companies are experiencing a shortage of science and technology talent. Almost nine in 10, 89 percent, agree that bringing more women and minorities into science fields will help solve this issue. Moreover, diversity has other benefits for science and tech companies, according to the executives, including increasing innovation and the ability to be more competitive in the global marketplace.Women’s birth size could be tied to cancer risk. Women who are heavier and longer at birth are at increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life, British researchers report. In fact, as birth weight and length increases, so does the risk for breast cancer, according to the results of a study published in the Sept. 30 online edition of PLoS Medicine. “These researchers have documented in unequivocal terms that larger birth size is associated with increased breast cancer risk several decades later,” said Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, the Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention at Harvard University School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology and author of an accompanying journal editorial. Birth size reflects, to a considerable extent, the effects of the environment within the womb on the fetus, Trichopoulos said. “To this day, they had not been sufficiently appreciated by the scientific community, because each individual study could not provide conclusive evidence. We are facing now a new reality: that breast cancer has its origins several decades before its clinical appearance,” he said. After gathering data from 32 studies on more than 600,000 women, 22,058 of whom had breast cancer, the researchers found that women who were heavier and longer at birth had increased risk for breast cancer as adults, HealthDay reported. An analysis of birth records, among these women, found that for every 17.6 ounces of birth weight, the risk for breast cancer increased 7 percent. After gathering data from 32 studies on more than 600,000 women, 22,058 of whom had breast cancer, the researchers found that women who were heavier and longer at birth had increased risk for breast cancer as adults, HealthDay reported. An analysis of birth records, among these women, found that for every 17.6 ounces of birth weight, the risk for breast cancer increased 7 percent. In addition, birth length and head circumference were also associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The strongest association between size at birth and an increased risk for breast cancer was seen for birth length, the researchers reported. “Recognition of early life influences are critical in the etiology of breast cancer and helps to explain why several adult life primary prevention practices – as distinct to secondary prevention ones focusing on early detection – have been of limited effectiveness,” Trichopoulos said.” Prevention of breast cancer needs to take into account the very long natural history of the disease,” he added. Some good news for breast cancer survivors. Vital Signs: As we embark on another Breast Cancer Awareness month, there’s at least some good news to report. There can be life, apparently a high-quality life, after breast cancer treatment, a new survivors report says. Vital Signs has more.