Abstract A79: African American women breast cancer disparities in Indiana: An overlooked dilema

Second to lung cancer, breast cancer is one of the top cancer killers of women in the United States. Data from the American Cancer Society predicts that over 200,000 cases of invasive breast carcinoma with a resulting 40,000 fatalities among American women will be diagnosed next year. This trend is certainly alarming and disheartening. Even more discouraging is the trends many African American women diagnosed with breast cancer follow. Though African American women have a lower incidence of diagnosis overall compared to white women, there continues to be a noticeable disparity in mortality of African American women suffering from this disease. Statistics for the state of Indiana are not far differentiated from those of the nation. In this state, more than ten times the number of white women is diagnosed with breast cancer as compared to their African American counterparts. Though only a fraction of the overall diagnosed population is African American, the percentage of fatalities for this group of women is higher than that of their white counterparts. It is important to specifically examine breast cancer disparities in this group since African Americans are severely underrepresented overall in the state. Additionally, breast cancer diagnoses for this population are fewer compared to the number of white women diagnosed with the disease which may cause African American women to be overlooked. This study will highlight breast cancer disparities in African American women in the state of Indiana, particularly in counties of with a high concentration of African Americans.