Women who think they know the skinny on breast cancer found their beliefs were at odds with the science in important areas, according to a report just published by a New Haven-area-based not-for-profit. New Haven State Sen. Toni Harp (pictured) called the report a “wake-up call,” especially in the minority community, where she hopes to spread the word about it.
Environment & Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) just published the 64-page report, “Breast Cancer: What Science Knows, What Women Think.”
The report found that most women think a family history of breast cancer is the biggest risk factor, but in fact only 15 percent of women who get the disease have a family history of it. Read EHHI’s press release about the report here.
Also, it found that most women think more white women than black women get breast cancer (true), but are unaware of the fact that more young black women than young white women get breast cancer, when it tends to be more aggressive and lead to higher fatality rates. Data in the report show that 141 white women, and 119 African American women, per 100,000 women, get breast cancer, but the mortality rates are 25.9 and 34.7, respectively.
These misconceptions all have implications for women’s health.
According to the American Cancer Society Facts and Figures, Connecticut had the highest breast cancer rate in the country in the 2003 report, and the fourth highest in the 2006 report. More than 200,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. But most women are unaware of these high rates.
EHHI commissioned the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy to conduct a survey of female Connecticut residents to better understand how women view their risks for getting breast cancer as well as their knowledge of prevention strategies and screening opportunities. African-American and Hispanic populations were over-surveyed in order to obtain an accurate representation of their respective opinions.
Nancy Alderman, president of EHHI, says, “If the public is armed with more complete information about breast cancer, women of all ethnic backgrounds will have a better chance for improving their outcomes.” In other words, if they know breast cancer rates are extremely high in Connecticut, they’d be more likely to get screened. Similarly, if they understand that family history is a relatively minor risk factor, more women — even those without such a family history — would be more likely to get screened.
Alderman adds, “We know that early onset breast cancer is often more aggressive. We also know that the kind of tumors black women get often do not respond as well to treatment. We need to do more research on this — that’s very important. Black women need to know that, just like Ashkenazi Jews, they have a higher rate of early onset breast cancer. If you have the gene, you have an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer.
The report makes 42 recommendations, including: for federal and state governments to provide information and free or sliding scale counseling and breast cancer screening; for foundations to direct dollars to research and education; for the medical community to emphasize the importance of screening; and for individuals to have a healthy diet, get regular exercise, have regular breast cancer screenings and avoid exposure to environmental carcinogens.
State Sen. Toni Harp, who represents New Haven and West Haven in the General Assembly, called this report a wake-up call for all women, and especially for African American women. “We’ve got to find a way to let women know what their true risk is for breast cancer,” she said. “The thing about that report is that many women believe myths about breast cancer that can affect their getting timely care. I’m going to try to go to black churches and talk about health care disparities and the differences between the reality and what they believe.
“From a legislative standpoint, we’ve got to pay to get the word out, to do outreach to various communities so that we can do prevention. One of the things we have in our insurance law is that you can get a baseline mammogram at 35, and we’ve got to encourage African American women to do that, and to do breast self-exams early on,
because it hits [these women] earlier on, and it’s more virulent then, and the mortality rates are a lot higher. That’s what I’ll be talking about when I go out, that they have to take health care into their own hands.”
