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Aggressive breast cancer hits black women more

Black women are also more likely to die from the disease, studies say.

Frankye Herald, program director of Mahogany's Child, shows a breast exam display. Herald's sister Terri died 7 years ago of breast cancer that had spread to her bones. Herald, a nurse, provides health information to African American women. One of her topics is breast cancer.

Jim Witmer Frankye Herald, program director of Mahogany's Child, shows a breast exam display. Herald's sister Terri died 7 years ago of breast cancer that had spread to her bones. Herald, a nurse, provides health information to African American women. One of her topics is breast cancer.

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By Amelia Robinson, Staff Writer Updated 11:35 PM Friday, October 14, 2011

Black women don’t get cancer as often as white women, but they are more likely to have aggressive forms of the disease and die from it at a younger age.

This is something Frankye Herald knows all too well.

Seven years ago, the Miami Valley Hospital nurse watched her 43-year-old sister Terri Herald succumb to a recurrence of an aggressive breast cancer that spread into her bones.

“It was a mess. It just ate her up,” Herald, director of Mahogany’s Child, the hospital’s African American Women’s Health Program. “I say it was miracle with my sister. Even thought it took her, she was still in good spirits. She wasn’t in pain.”

Terri Herald was just 39-year-old when first diagnosed in 2001.

Black women have a higher incidence rate of breast cancer before age 40 and are more likely to die from breast cancer at every age. Nationally, the death rate for breast cancer from 2003 to 2007 was 32.4 percent for black women, compared to 23.9 percent for white women, according to the American Cancer Society.

A black woman with cancer at any age is more likely than a white woman with cancer to develop cancer in the other breast. Women younger than 45 are more likely to get breast cancer that tends to be aggressive, according to a study presented last month to a American Society of Cancer Research health disparages conference.

At that same conference, Dr. Victoria L. Seewaldt, co-director of the breast and ovarian cancer program at Duke University , presented a test that can identify signaling pathways that could lead to early detection of breast cancers in young, high-risk black women even before cancer cells appear. They can lead to earlier detection and preventative measures.

“The idea of sitting around and waiting for a women to get breast cancer is unacceptable,” Seewaldt said. “The number of women who are dying is unacceptably high.”

Seewaldt said women tested to be at risk can be placed on exercise and weight loss plans and prescribed the relatively affordable diabetes drug metformin, Seewaldt said. Aggressive breast cancer is only part of the issue, Seewaldt said. Limited access to sufficient health care and little or no insurance prevents many black women from getting proper screenings.

“A lot of young women, no matter their race, are not getting access to insurance,” she said. “The disparage falls to African American women.”

Black women have a higher percentage of late stage diagnosis (30 percent) than white women (26.8 percent) ,which researchers associated with health disparities, socioeconomic factors, language barriers and educational and cultural differences, according to Public Health — Dayton & Montgomery County.

In Montgomery County, the area county with the largest black population and most breast cancer deaths, focus is shifting from support to prevention and education for breast cancer and other illness.

The Sister-Sister program, the county-funded predominately black breast cancer support group, will end Jan. 1.

Jeffrey A. Cooper, assistant health commissioner , said the $18,000 program and several others programs through the health district are being cut in anticipation of the expected $17.3 million in reduced funding from the Humane Service Levy and state for 2112 to 2015.

The county can no longer provide services that are duplicated in the community elsewhere, he said, adding that there are other support groups in the area.

Smoking cession programs and collaborative initiatives with community partners like Get Up Montgomery County are in place to combat chronic illness, he said.

“The collaborative approach is a much better use of taxpayer money than offering a support group,” he said.

Rosalee Bradley, Sister-Sister’s retiring facilitator, said black women, like others, often put their health needs last.

“We are caregivers. We take care of our children, we take are of our parents. We take care of everyone,” she said.

Bradley and Herald are among those in the Miami Valley attempting to educate black woman about the importance of earlier detection and screening.

Herald and two other Mahogany’s Child nurses hold sessions on a variety health topics including breast health for women’s groups, churches and other organizations.

They often battle misconceptions and bad habits spread from generation to generation.

“I work with the older women so that they can pass down the (correct) information to the younger women and children,” Herald said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 or arobinson@ DaytonDailyNews.com.

About Saturday’s newspaper

On Saturday, the front section and Life section of your Dayton Daily News are printed on pink paper as part of our month-long initiative to raise awareness of breast cancer. This is our company’s third year of supporting this initiative, with continuing coverage about developments in research and information for and about survivors and their families.

Throughout the month of October, Dayton Daily News readers can find news and information to help those whose lives have been impacted by the disease.

About 80 employees and family members from the newspaper and our partners at WHIO-TV, K99.1, The Eagle and News Talk Radio WHIO are joining the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk Saturday at Fifth-Third Field in Dayton. Our walking team has raised $6,400 so far. We are proud to support the American Cancer Society’s campaign for a world with more birthdays.

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