Black women who feel that they have been racially discriminated against are more likely than other black women to develop breast cancer, according to a study out of Howard University led by Dr. Teletia Taylor. The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.Taylor and colleagues tracked 59,000 black women over a period of six years. They found that participants who said they routinely experienced discrimination, whether "everyday" or "major", had a higher risk of developing breast cancer than those black women who did not experience such discrimination. This link was stronger among women under the age of 50.
According to the researchers, more work is needed to further understand the relationship between racism and breast cancer.
