Saturday, March 15, 2014

Why Black Women Die of Cancer

I'm sharing an important article that was in the New York Times yesterday written by Harold Freeman, past president of the American Cancer Society.

He details the history and efforts around improving diagnosis, screening and treatment for black women. His focus here is on breast cancer but the concepts extend to other cancers as well. He details how efforts to get mammography rates to match the white community did improve but survival rates did not, and he shows how the most important access is to compliance with treatment after diagnosis and the particular effectiveness of healthcare--especially cancer care--navigators.

Please take  a look at this article and share it with people you know who work in healthcare but especially with those who are working with people living in poverty. Often it is day care, work leave and transportation that are the hidden impediments to full access to healthcare and treatment.

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/opinion/why-black-women-die-of-cancer.html?_r=0

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