Breast cancer is a type of cancer in which cells in the breast tissue divide and grow without normal control. It is a disease that can strike anyone, and only a qualified health care provider can diagnose breast cancer.

Even though White women are more likely to get breast cancer than African American women, African American women are more likely to die from the disease. Breast cancer is usually not found in Black women until the tumors are very large, which makes the disease harder to treat. Experts believe the difference between races is due, in part, to the costs of clinical breast exams and mammograms, which results in differences in screening rates between White women and African American women. Lack of awareness and information about breast cancer may also be to blame.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Pennsylvania. Although the number of U.S. deaths from cancer dropped for the first time in 14 years in 2007, the mortality rate in Pennsylvania remains higher than for the nation as a whole. For African Americans, the statistics are even more concerning:

•African American men have a 25 percent higher incidence (rate of occurrence) and a 43 percent higher mortality (rate of death) for all cancer types combined than White men (refer to Figure 1).

BARBERSHOP OUTREACH—Lorraine Starsky, RN, a public health nurse with the Allegheny County Health Department’s Chronic Disease Prevention Program, demonstrates the concept of the “Healthy Plate” using food models at a local barbershop as part of a cancer prevention and awareness campaign.

•Although African American women have a lower incidence rate for all cancers combined than White women, they have a 20 percent higher mortality rate (refer to Figure 1).

•African Americans tend to be diagnosed at more advanced stages of cancer than Whites.

•African Americans have a lower five-year relative survival rate for almost every type of cancer than Whites at each stage of diagnosis.

This fifth segment, with a focus on cancer, is part of an eight-part series on health disparities in the Pittsburgh region. These segments are a collaboration among the New Pittsburgh Courier, Community PARTners (a core service of the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute—CTSI), and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. Pitt School of Medicine assistant professor Michael Yonas, DrPH, sat down with Esther Bush, president and CEO of the Urban League, to discuss this month’s focus on cancer among African Americans in Allegheny County.

ESTHER BUSH

MY: Cancer seems to increasingly have an effect on everyone’s lives. What are things you feel that people should think about to lower their risk for cancer?

In 2010, the Oakland Business Improvement District (OBID), along with four Oakland partner organizations, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and the Allegheny County Health Department, received a grant award through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Healthy Communities Program. Oakland was one of 40 communities selected in 23 states and one territory to advance the nation’s efforts to prevent chronic diseases and related risk factors through a locally collaborative approach. This approach is called Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and EnVironmental changE (ACHIEVE). The ACHIEVE mission is to bring together local leaders to build healthier communities by promoting policy, systems and environmental change strategies focusing on physical activity, nutrition, tobacco cessation, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.