In this month’s Women’s Wellness, we’ve talked about breast cancer screening, what happens after an abnormal scan and treatment, but now, I’m asking Dr. Everett Bonner, a surgical breast oncologist at the Baton Rouge Clinic, about what plays a role in who is more at risk for the disease.
We have already told you genetics is a big factor, but what about race?
“Race-wise, we have not seen a big difference as far as increased statistics on females who are Caucasian and African-American or of Asian decent or Middle-Eastern. It’s kind of even as far as distribution,” explained Dr. Bonner.
However, Dr. Bonner said there can be some underlying differences.
“In the African-American population, we see more of any aggressive subtype. We’ve seen that. We’ve seen some patients who present at a later stage, but stage per stage, everybody, there’s equal mortality. It’s equal survival rate, but sometimes in certain populations, in Louisiana, especially, we see a little bit of an advanced stage of diagnosis, whether that’s because it wasn’t screened. I think that may be a factor to that,” said Dr. Bonner.
That is why Dr. Bonner urges early detection, screening, and awareness of breast cancer are vital because they can save lives.
“Sometimes there’s some social awareness, and I find that with some of my patients in smaller communities, it’s that ‘if I go get screened, they’re going to find cancer, so therefore I won’t get screened’ and that delays sometimes their mammograms, therefore delays, the early diagnosis of breast cancer. That is something we’ve seen in the past 10 years or so, but now with the awareness, and it’s out there in the public, we’re seeing that less and less. Now that the NFL is the biggest breast cancer supporter. It does have that stigma anymore,” concluded Dr. Bonner.
Dr. Bonner said if you have any questions, make sure to talk to your doctor or a specialist.