African-Americans wait longer than any other women to get diagnosed and treated for breast cancer, according to a new study that helps explain why blacks die more of the disease than whites, even though they get it less.  Breast cancer diagnoses among African-American women are delayed by a median of 29 days, and their treatment by a median of 20 days compared to other women, says the study in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine. 

"There are differences and they are rather astounding. There is an implication for survival if one isn't diagnosed and treated quickly enough," said Dr.Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin, a cancer epidemiologist at Columbia University who examined the records of 49,000 breast cancer patients enrolled in Medicare.

Recent studies suggest that African-American women may be genetically more susceptible to aggressive, lethal breast cancers, and may not respond as well to treatment as other women. Of the more than 200,000 breast cancers diagnosed each year in the United States, just 10% are in black women. But they're nearly 29% more likely to die of the disease than whites.

This article appeared in the November 15, 2006 edition of the New York Daily News.

http://www.nydailynews.com/11-14-2006/city_life/story/471059p-396470c.html

Published Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006