Breast Cancer Statistics for African American Women

Incidence

• An estimated 19,540 new cases of breast cancer are expected to occur among African American women in 2009.
• Breast cancer is the most common cancer among African American women.
• The incidence rate of breast cancer is about 10 percent lower in African American women than in white woman; however among younger African American women (under age 40), the incidence is higher than among white women.
• Breast cancer incidence rates increased rapidly among African American women in the 1980s largely due to increased use of mammography. However, since the early 1990s, breast cancer incidence rates have stabilized among African American women aged 50 and older, while rates decreased by 0.7 percent among women under age 50 from 1991-2005.

Mortality

• An estimated 6,020 deaths from breast cancer are expected to occur among African American women in 2009.
• Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among African American women, exceeded only by lung cancer.
• During the early 1980s, breast cancer death rates for white and African American women were about equal, but during 2001-2005 African American women had a 37 percent higher death rate.
• Breast cancer death rates among African-American women increased 1.5 percent annually from 1975 to 1992 and declined thereafter. However, the decline was larger in women under age 50 (1.9 percent annually) than in women age 50 and older (1.2 percent).
• The higher mortality rate in African-American women may be related to differences in access to and utilization of early detection and treatment and differences in tumor characteristics.

Survival

• From 1996-2004, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer among African-American women was 77 percent, compared with 90 percent among white women. The difference may be attributed to both late stage at detection and poorer stage specific survival.
• Fifty-one percent of all breast cancers diagnosed among African-American women are at a local stage, compared to 62 percent among white women.

Screening

• In 2005, the proportion of African American women aged 40 and older who reported getting a mammogram within the past two years was 64.9 percent. However, only 49.9 percent of African American women reported having a mammogram within the past year.

ACS Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2009-2010