Here, experts outline life-saving solutions.
But when you dig into the statistics a bit more, youre presented with a less optimistic outlook.
These are the straight facts, laid out in black and white.
She received her medical degree from the George Washington School of Medicine and stayed at GW for residency.
She also has an associate fellowship in integrative medicine from the University of Arizona.
Sandra Luyindula, MD is a primary care physician at Proactive MD.
professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University
The solutions arent easy or quick, but they do exist.
If this is a problem that doesnt need toand shouldntexist, why does it?
(Researchsupports this observation.)
These delays could affect outcomes, since the longer cancer goes untreated, the harder it is to eliminate.
This can lead to them being less likely to get further medical testing and screenings when theyre needed.
Most of the time when a doctor sees me, they see a Black woman and nothing else.
I always confirm they know I did my research beforehand so they take me seriously.
I tell them Im an assistant professor and have a PhD and studied at Harvard Medical School.
This is an example of the bang out of bias most white women will never experience.
professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University
(It makes up10 to 15 percent of all breast cancer cases.
And there arent many treatment options that work for it, either.
There definitely needs to be more therapy options for women with triple-negative breast cancer, Dr. Sims says.
This is unfathomable to her.
Triple-negative breast cancer predominately affects Black women, so why arent they part of the clinical studies?
We need multilayered solutions that match the complexity of the problem.
To start, Dr. Sims says doctors and health-care providers should go through implicit bias training.
A lot of this bias is unconscious.
Most of the time when a doctor sees me, they see a Black woman and nothing else.
More effort needs to be made for breast cancer prevention to be equitable, too.
These solutions are just a start, but with time theycanmake a difference.
This is a big, multifactorial issue.
We need to understand every component to treat this issue as a whole.
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