Any cancer diagnosis is daunting, but women diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer have good reason to worry. It's an aggressive form of the disease and survival rates are lower than other types. Research is showing that black women are increasingly more at risk for developing these dangerous kinds of cancer and there is research underway to find out what, if any, role race plays in the survival rates and incidence of more deadly forms of cancer. The latest figures from the National Institutes of Health put black women at nearly twice the risk of white women for developing Triple negative breast cancer.
Research at UW Carbone Cancer Center is looking at the issue, via a study funded by the NIH. Experts do not know at this point whether the risk factors are genetic or environmental, but the study is aimed at shedding light on the increased risk and trying to pinpoint specific factors. Compounding the dangerous nature of triple negative breast cancer is the fact that the only treatment approved for it is chemotherapy, which many times does not work.
