What Health Equality Looks Like: Black Women Should Get Screened 8 Years Earlier

On the week of Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of the end of slavery after the Civil War, improving health equality is as important as ever.  

Concerningly, breast cancer mortality rates look very different with Black women having a 40 percent higher death rate. In a 2021 article in Nature, Newsome highlighted the pressing need for equity in cancer screening, and that a potential solution would be to make race and ethnicity –specific adjustments to the recommended screening starting age. Studies conducted from 2011 to 2020 suggest that while breast cancer screening was recommended to start at age 50 years for the general female population, Black women should start screening 8 years earlier, at 42.

Infrequent screenings at any age increase disparities in risk of mortality, although the limited availability of comprehensive, population-based, individual long-term data has always been a barrier in determining just how much of a rift it creates between different races and ethnicities. However, race and ethnicity is enough of a proven risk factor for adjusting guidelines to be an important step toward a personalized and fair screening program.

Koning aims to provide accessible, regular, risk-adapted screenings to women of all ages, starting as early as science deems necessary. Read more about our technology and impact in the fight against breast cancer here. 

Source: 

Chen T, Kharazmi E, Fallah M. Race and Ethnicity–Adjusted Age Recommendation for Initiating Breast Cancer Screening. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(4):e238893. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.8893