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Black women and breast cancer Fighting the fear and ignorance that contribute to breast cancer’s toll among black women.
March 15, 2012
Sandra Yates is a breast cancer survivor. On this particular day, after being diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer almost a year ago, she received her last treatment and officially became a breast cancer survivor.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Related Content
March 15, 2012
Sandra Yates is photographed at her home in Lanham, Md. When Yates first found a pea-sized lump in her breast, she was sure it was cancer, but she refused to acknowledge it, refusing to go to the doctor and keeping the lump secret from friends and family. After nine months she decided to act, by then the lump was the size of an egg. Health experts say black women are often diagnosed at later stages of cancer and appear to be more susceptible to aggressive tumors than white women.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 19, 2012
Regina Hampton is a breast surgeon and medical director of Signature Breast Care in Lanham. "A lot of women come in at later stages ... and what I hear from my patients is they’re all afraid," she said.. . . and what I hear from my patients is they’re all afraid,” Hampton said of the black women she treats.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 19, 2012
Regina Hampton talks with a new patient about the different procedures and treatments available for breast cancer patients in Lanham. Hampton said she believes black women carry angst because of a medical system that has been historically inaccessible to African Americans.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 19, 2012
Regina Hampton talks with a new patient about the different procedures and treatments available for breast cancer patients in Lanham. Breast cancer, Hampton said, "is the most treatable female cancer that we have. I think one of the challenges is getting people to realize that the survival rates are very good for breast cancer if you present early. I think that message has not resonated through our community."
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 19, 2012
Regina Hampton shows a new patient how to examine the breast for lumps, which could be a sign of breast cancer, at her offices in Lanham.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton examines a patient's chart in Lanham.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton prepares to insert a balloon catheter into a patient's breast for radiation treatment in Lanham.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton prepares to insert a balloon catheter into a patient's breast for radiation treatment in Lanham.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton prepares to insert a balloon catheter into a patient's breast for radiation treatment in Lanham.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton, a breast surgeon and medical director of Signature Breast Care, prepares for her second surgery of the day at the Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
At the Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham, Regina Hampton, a breast surgeon and medical director of Signature Breast Care, removes a suspicious lump found in the breast of a patient and has the specimen sent out for testing to determine whether it is benign or malignant.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton, a breast surgeon and medical director of Signature Breast Care, removes a suspicious lump found in the breast of a patient and has the specimen sent out for testing to determine whether it is benign or malignant.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton, a breast surgeon and medical director of Signature Breast Care, holds a suspicious lump that she removed from the breast of a patient. It will be sent out for a biopsy to determine whether it is benign or malignant. African American women are more likely than white women to die of breast cancer. In 2007, according to the American Cancer Society, death rates for both groups were going down, but the rate wase 41 percent higher among African American women than among white women.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
March 15, 2012
Regina Hampton, a breast surgeon and medical director of Signature Breast Care, removes a suspicious lump found in the breast of a patient and has the specimen sent out for testing to determine whether it is benign or malignant.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Tiffany Mathis is undergoing chemotherapy to treat her Stage 1 breast cancer. She was photographed in her home in Owings Mills. Moments after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Mathis started thinking about arranging her funeral. Mathis, 43, whose cancer was discovered in Stage 1, had a lumpectomy last fall. She has been told her prognosis is good.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
Tiffany Mathis with her husband, Melvin Mathis, who is posing in her wig in January, when her hair began falling out. Melvin Mathis, who teaches in Baltimore, has been a special-education teacher for more than 20 years. He's also a motivational speaker and the author of "Rebound to Win." Tiffany Mathis said that while she was initially planning for the worst after her diagnosis, her husband and her daughter, who researched the disease and told Mathis that most women survive breast cancer, helped her focus instead on a battle plan. "It is scary. It's no joke. I'm not going to downplay it," she said, but it has helped that her husband has "accepted my bald head. So I'm good now."
Courtesy of Tiffany Mathis
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Courtesy of Tiffany Mathis
March 15, 2012
Sandra Yates is officially a breast cancer survivor. She was originally reluctant to get treatment for a lump she found in her breast, eventually leading her tumor and cancer to grow. But after Yates, 53, received her diagnosis, she said she felt immediately empowered to fight the disease.
Marvin Joseph
/
The Washington Post
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Section:/national/health-science
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