A lot of black women do not get nearly as good treatment for breast cancer as do white women. But others point to a possible genetic cause. Heredity also appears to play a role in why black women get cancer at a younger age, he says. It all adds up to a puzzling scenario that contrasts sharply with the overall decline in cancer deaths since 1991. Among black women from 1986 to 1997, cancer incidence rose and mortality fell only slightly, whereas among white women incidence has remained relatively steady and mortality has dropped.
Studies have yet to prove it exists, though anecdotal reports suggest a genetic link.
Brown's doctor then got on the phone, calling an oncologist, a surgeon and an internist, who agreed to serve as Brown's medical team. That team was ready in 1981, when Brown was diagnosed with cancer in her right breast, and again in 1997 when cancer was detected in the left. But a niece, Lea, died of breast cancer last year at the age of 29, and Brown says most of the women in her family have tested positively for BRCA-1, the gene linked to breast cancer. While she may be genetically predisposed to breast cancer, it's certain she would have died without good care. The fact that black mortality rates have stubbornly refused to drop in recent years, Brawley says, could be due to higher rates of poverty and obesity among black women, which make them more likely to develop cancers as well as less likely to get good care.