Breast cancer remains a clear and present danger for Indigenous women, without much improvement over the past three decades, new data reveals.
Earlier this month, the American Cancer Society released a new report that updated a range of breast cancer statistics for 2024. According to the report, an estimated 310,720 women will be diagnosed with the disease this year, and 42,250 are expected to die from it. This marks a 44% decline in death rates, in particular, since 1989.
However, among Indigenous women — particularly Native American and Alaskan Native women — rates of dying from the disease remained relatively unchanged. This group is now 6% more likely to die from the disease than white women, per the new American Cancer Society report — compared to 0.0216% between 1990 to 2009, according to 2014 data published in the National Library of Medicine. Diagnosis rates, meanwhile, have gone up – since 2000, incidents of breast cancer have increased among Indigenous women by 50%, the report shows.
While the American Cancer’s Society report did not reveal why these disparities exist for Indigenous women, other research efforts show that these women lack access to healthcare and health insurance. Other risk factors include smoking and alcohol intake, use of birth control pills, and high diabetes risk.
Researchers at the American Cancer Society say that progress in the fight against breast cancer can be made first and foremost by increasing racial diversity in clinical trials along with community partnerships that increases “access to high-quality screening and treatment among underserved women,” the report states.
Dr. William Dahut, a chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, expanded upon that thought, noting that these “alarming” disparities still exist because “these gaps [in progress] need to be rectified through systematic efforts to ensure access to high-quality screening and treatment for every woman” – and thus far, they have not been, he adds.
That said, breast cancer remains a concern for women in all demographic groups. After skin cancer, breast cancer is currently the most common cancer among U.S. women overall, and is the leading cause of death in Hispanic women specifically, the report states. And while Black women have a 5% lower incidence rate than white women, they have a 38% higher chance of dying from the disease than their white counterparts.
One organization leading efforts to further curb breast cancer’s spread and impact – for all women – include the CDC’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which has “been a lifeline for limited-income, uninsured and underinsured women, providing them with critical screenings and treatment,” according to American Cancer Society Action Network president Lisa A. Lacasse.
But more work is needed, especially from the government, she adds. “Congress has a chance to pass [a law] which would reauthorize the [early detection program] and expand its reach to more people who may not otherwise be screened,” Lacasse says. “We urge Congress to take this step towards saving lives from cancer while reducing costs for our health care system.”
