Why are Black women more likely to die from breast cancer? Groundbreaking study seeks answers

Why are Black women more likely to die from breast cancer despite the stage of their diagnosis? The American Cancer Society and health equity researchers are determined to find out, but they need your help.

Fourteen years ago, Jennifer Wilson of Moreno Valley was 34 years old when she felt a lump in her breast. She went through a whirlwind of tests, and after two weeks of waiting, a nurse called her: It was cancer.

"I had no warning. There was no prep. She just gave it to me," Wilson said

Doctors diagnosed Wilson with triple negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms, but she caught it at stage one. That's not the case for others in her community, despite the fact Black women are five percent less likely to get breast cancer than white women.

"But black women are 38% more likely to die from breast cancer. So what we are obsessed with right now is collecting the data to understand the why," said UCLA's Dr. Fola May, the American Cancer Society's ambassador for the Voices Study. The call to action is to enroll 100,000 Black women between the ages of 25 to 55.

"The goal of the study is to understand why Black women are seeing these unfortunate outcomes with many different types of cancer," said May.

She said when Black women have abnormal mammography, they don't always get immediate guidance and access to additional tests.

"You need to have places for people to go to get timely care when those screening tests are not normal," she said.

"I have talked to women who have been turned away or have been told this is not so," said Wilson.

After surgery, chemo, radiation and Tamoxifen, Wilson is cancer free. She's created her own nonprofit and mentors women on how to make their voices heard.

"When tests are being done or given for African American women, we need to participate," she said.

Dr. May says it's easy. Register and fill out a survey at Voices.Cancer.org.

She adds, "It's critical that we have these large, longitudinal studies so that we can understand what's happening in Black communities and why we're dying unnecessarily."