"Black women are actually less likely to get breast cancer than white women, but much more likely to die from breast cancer," said Dr. Fola May an associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA.
The American Cancer Society also reports that black women also have lower breast cancer survival rates compared to white women.
"We know that one factor is the type of cancer that black women tend to get, which is a triple negative cancer," said Dr. May. "Unfortunately there isn't much that we can do about that with the science and technology just yet."
Dr. May adds another factor that is driving the high mortality rate is the quality of care for black women.
"We know that even though black women are likely to get screened for breast cancer," said Dr. May. "The quality of the screening and the care that they get, the timeliness of the care, is not a point where it needs to be."
Earlier this year, the American Cancer Society launched a new project called VOICES of Black Women. Dr. May said the goal is to target 100,000 black women and the major causes of many different types of cancers that they are diagnosed with.
The study will collect data from women between the ages of 25 to 55 in 20 different states and Washington D.C., over the course of 30 years.
It will look at everything from lifestyle to environmental factors.
Dr. May says black women are a population that hasn't been involved in enough research.
"Unfortunately, there's been a bias in medical research, and that we are less likely to study black and brown populations in science," said Dr. May.
Dr. May also enrolled in the study herself. She hopes this will help future generations and can prevent further deaths among black women.
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