Chicago area racial gap in breast cancer mortality is growing

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http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/2822398,CST-NWS-breast21.article

Only a third of area hospitals catch breast cancer early

October 21, 2010

BY MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporter [e-mail]

Only about one-third of Chicago hospitals are able to show that they find breast cancer when it's small or provide treatment within 30 days of diagnosis -- two factors that can improve a woman's chances of survival.

Those are among the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force's findings in its first snapshot of how well Chicago area hospitals screen for and treat breast cancer.

New figures from the Sinai Urban Health Institute also provide further evidence that Chicago's racial gap in breast cancer mortality has grown steadily over the last two decades, outpacing similar disparities between black and white women in New York City and the nation as a whole. snip

Between 2005 and 2007, the most recent period for which data are available, black women in Chicago were 62 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women, compared with a 27 percent difference in New York City during the same period. The figures also show that the gap between black and white women in Chicago has been growing steadily since 1987, when the death rate for black women was only 2 percent higher.