Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Black women in the U.S. In fact, 1 in 9 Black women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. And although Black women are less likely to develop breast cancer than white women, they’re more likely to die from breast cancer. There are many possible reasons for this difference in survival. They likely stem from a combination of genetics, biological factors and health care inequities. Some of them include:

• Differences in the percentage of women who have certain risk factors, such as being overweight or obese
• Differences in tumor biology and tumor genetics
• Later stage of breast cancer at diagnosis, and
• Barriers to accessing high-quality health care, including breast cancer screening tests and completing treatment, if breast cancer is diagnosed

While Black women had higher rates of screening mammography than other women in 2023, which is the most recent data we have, some findings show that Black women may have more delays in follow-up after an abnormal mammogram than white women, which may be due to barriers they experience accessing care. If breast cancer is diagnosed, the biology of breast tumors varies by race and ethnicity. Triple negative breast cancers, or TNBC, tend to be more common among Black women than in women of other ethnicities. Triple negative tumors lack three key receptors – estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, or HER2. As a result, these tumors don’t respond to hormone therapy or HER2-targeted therapies. So, they have a poorer prognosis compared to other breast cancers, especially within the first 5 years after a diagnosis. Black women are also more likely to be diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, which is another aggressive form of breast cancer. Many studies are exploring the causes of the difference in survival rates for Black women, but so far, there’s no clear answer. To learn more about breast cancer in Black women, you can visit the Breast Cancer Statistics page on komen.org.