Urban-rural breast cancer disparities

FREMONT, Calif., June 26 (UPI) -- The recent decline in U.S. breast cancer was less pronounced among the poor and those living in rural areas, researchers said.

Study leader Christina Clarke of the Northern California Cancer Center studied breast cancer incidence data from the largest U.S. cancer database for 1997-2004, comparing poor areas against rich and urban areas against rural.

"Between 2001-2004, incidence rates of invasive breast cancer declined more than 8 percent in the United States," Clarke said in a statement. "One possible explanation for this is widespread discontinuation of and/or failure to initiate hormone therapy. Because this cessation of hormone therapy use was more pronounced in rich/urban areas, we wanted to see if there was a corresponding difference in breast cancer incidence between these areas and poor/rural parts of the country."

The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, found breast cancer incidence trends for rural counties peaked in 1999 and then declined steadily, differing from those observed in urban counties, where rates fell dramatically after 2002.

The researchers speculate that this may be due to more media coverage of the harmful effects of hormone therapy in the 2002 Women's Health Initiative trial in urban areas.