Breast cancer diagnoses rise among women under 50 as Georgia's mammography rate falls to 70%

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A new report from the American Cancer Society finds while breast cancer mortality rates have gone down, disparities remain.

Credit: Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

Lack of access to health care, declining rates of mammography screening, and triple negative breast cancer are all working in concert to kill Georgians — especially Black women.

Nationally, Black women have a 5% lower risk of getting breast cancer, but the mortality rates are 38% higher, said Dr. Bruce Waldholtz on behalf of the American Cancer Society.

"Here in Georgia, the mortality rate per hundred thousand for white women is 19," he said. "But for Black women, it's 26.4."

There are two reasons for this, he said.

"One is, unfortunately, African American women are more likely to have triple negative breast disease, which does not have responses to the normal hormonal manipulations and medication," Waldholtz said. "And No.2, decreased rates of mammography."

Credit: American Cancer Society

Individuals who do not have access to health care are less likely to get screened, which is why the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the Society's advocacy arm, has throughout the nation pushed to increase access to Medicaid so that women would then have insurance where they can go ahead that have access to cancer screenings, including mammography.

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming are the 10 states that so far have chosen not to expand Medicaid.