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.”

A new vaccine could mean a much brighter future for prostate cancer patients. The now-experimental treatment offers a novel approach to battling the disease and has shown promise in extending life. The Provenge cancer vaccine, manufactured by the Seattle-based Dendreon Corp., improved overall survival when compared to a dummy treatment in a study of 512 men with advanced disease. Dendreon says it will seek federal approval of the treatment later this year. Unlike traditional disease-preventing vaccines, Provenge is a therapeutic vaccine, which treats cancer by training the immune system to fight tumors. Provenge would be the first such treatment on the market if the government gives it the go-ahead. “This is an exciting result, demonstrating that harnessing a patient’s own immune system can successfully attack prostate cancer,” said Dr. Eric Small, cancer specialist at the University of California at San Francisco. “Now we have more confidence that the initial results we saw were real.”

Poor Whites “shock” South African official
Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa’s African National Congress, said he’s shocked and embarrassed about poverty among Whites in his country, reports the BBC. The comments (which come ahead of an election year) came after he visited the town of Bethlehem, where many poor Whites do not have running water or electricity. “I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here,” Zuma said. “The vast number of Black poverty does not mean that we must ignore White poverty, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about.” He added that he saw the same problems in White areas that he saw in Black squatter camps. “This is not about politics; it’s about people who are poor, who are in need and want to be helped by government,” he said. The charity South Africa’s Helping Hand, a group that assists the nation’s poor White communities, said the number of homeless White people since 2002 went up by 58 percent. The country’s mostly White trade union, Solidarity, was pleased with Zuma’s visit and comments. “For a long time Whites have been seen as rich and Blacks poor. Talking about White poverty has been seen as politically incorrect,” the group’s secretary general told the AFP. As Zuma is reaching out to the White community, the nation’s predominately White main opposition party is also trying to strengthen ties with the Black community before the election’s next year, analysts say.

Nigerian explosion kills 12
A patrol tanker burst open and caught on fire in Lagos, Nigeria, killing at least 12, reports the BBC. The accident happened when the tanker’s driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a curb causing the big fire. Another tanker and a bus also got caught in the flames of the fire. A hospital official told the BBC that there were “massive” casualties and that the driver of the bus did not listen when he was told to stop before his vehicle caught on fire. The series of tanker accidents in the highly populated city have prompted authorities to ban heavy vehicles from parking on the street.

Millions sought for AIDS treatment in Africa
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have launched a campaign to raise $21 million to fund an AIDS treatment program in five African countries, HealthDay.com reports. The money would be used for a three-year program in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Nigeria. The program would reach 950,000 vulnerable people, including 49,000 people living with AIDS, 13,000 sex workers and 10,000 orphans, Agence France-Presse reported. Nearly 4.5 million people, including about 400,000 children younger than 14, are living with HIV in the five countries. In 2006, AIDS claimed the lives of 350,000 people in these countries, which form the Sahel region of west and central Africa. “Even though the impact may vary from one country to another, HIV is a major obstacle to development as it affects all key sectors: the economy, health, education and even food security,” said Abdourahmane Ndiaye, the Red Cross’ HIV program officer for the region, AFP reported.