Dr. Caplin’s Letter to the Editor: Breast cancer requires not just studies, but concrete action

October 24, 2024 3:12 pm

During the month of October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, much is being said and done to bring awareness to breast cancer, including an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch announcing a new American Cancer Society study called VOICES of Black Women. This study would aim to “better understand cancer and other health conditions among Black women” according to the ACS website. In the Post-Dispatch article, ACS officials endorsed the need for more research in breast cancer, and indicated the researchers were trying to understand the racial disparities in breast cancer diagnosis and mortality. 

“Women are dying from a completely treatable disease. Studies are always important but now is the time for a call to action.”

David Caplin, MD

At Gateway to Hope, not only do we know about alarming mortality rates for women of color, we also know what to do about it. While we support research that saves lives, we don’t need another decades-long study to tell us what we already know: Black women are 43% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. The issue is not whether the medical advancements exist–unlike other cancers and chronic diseases, 90+% of breast cancers are treatable when caught early. The issue is that not everyone has access to those advancements because of cost and other systemic barriers like long standing (and warranted) mistrust and fear, inadequate health insurance, inability to take time off work to receive care, lack of good transportation options, and more.

Our work at Gateway to Hope is to remove these barriers to affordable, timely, quality breast healthcare, and ensure that more people can access the screenings, treatment, and care that have been proven to save lives.