Page 86 2024 PAINT THE PAPER PINK Lincoln Daily News Oct/Nov 2024 A new ACS report says the steepest increase in breast cancer incidence rate is in White women under 50 and the Black-White mortality gap widens. Published on: October 2, 2024 Written by: Sandy McDowell A new American Cancer Society (ACS) report finds that the incidence of breast cancer in women has continued to increase, rising by 1% a year during 2012 to 2021, for all women combined. These cases are largely confined to localized-stage cancers, which have not spread from the breast, and hormone receptorpositive disease (either estrogen positive or progesterone positive), the most common type of breast cancer. Typically, the disease occurs in women older than age 50, so it’s concerning that women younger than age 50 saw a steeper increase in breast cancer (increasing 1.4% a year) than women older than 50 (0.7% a year). Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women had the fastest increase in breast cancer incidence for both age groups. AAPI women younger than age 50 had a 2.5% increase in incidence a year and AAPI women older than age 50 had a 2.7% increase. The increase in younger AAPI women is particularly striking because it has moved this population from the second lowest incidence Breast Cancer Incidence Still Rises and Death Rate Still Declines rate in 2000 compared to other racial and ethnic groups to sharing the highest breast cancer incidence rate with White women in 2021. In contrast to rising incidence, the death rate for breast cancer among women in the United States has dropped 44% from its peak in 1989 to 2022. That translates to nearly 518,000 fewer breast cancer deaths during this time compared to the number that would have occurred if the peak rate had continued. The continuous decline in breast cancer death rates is attributed to advances in treatment and early detection. But, as with breast cancer incidence rates, there are wide ethnic and racial disparities in death rates. For instance, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have experienced no decrease in breast cancer death rates over the past three decades. The largest breast cancer disparity is between Black and White women. Black women are 38% more likely to die from breast cancer even though they are 5% less likely to be diagnosed with the disease. This is partly because Black women are the least likely to be diagnosed with an early stage of breast cancer, when the cancer can usually be treated more effectively. Only 58% of Black women are diagnosed at a localized stage compared to 68% of White women. Still, Black and White women have similar Continued --
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