Fight against breast cancer

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Gov. Mark Sanford recommended recently that lawmakers spend $1 million for expanded breast cancer screenings and $1 million more for research. Potentially thousands of poor women could gain access to free breast and cervical cancer screenings under the governor's plan.

The only source of funding in South Carolina for breast and cervical cancer prevention and screening currently is federal money — about $3.3 million a year. Only low-income women between the ages of 47-64 currently are eligible for screenings under the program.

The Greenville News reported in September that black women in the Upstate are dying of breast cancer at a much higher rate than blacks statewide and throughout the country. The series found that hundreds of South Carolina women die each year from breast and cervical cancer, but lawmakers have spent none of the $1 billion tobacco settlement money directly on the disease.

Statewide, black women are 47 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, even though white women are diagnosed with breast cancer 13 percent more often. The problem is that black women often are diagnosed at a later stage, when the cancer is less treatable, they tend to be younger and they get a particularly virulent form of the disease. Clearly one possible remedy is for the state to reach out to younger black women so that cancer can be detected earlier.

A recent study by the S.C. Cancer Alliance gave the state a grade of "D" on its report card for breast cancer deaths and an "F" for overall cancer deaths. Patients face a higher risk of death in this state than in most other states in the nation.

But breast cancer is not the only form of the disease that deserves the attention of the Legislature. The most diagnosed form of cancer in the state is prostate cancer, with 4,800 men expected to suffer from the disease for the first time this year. Meanwhile, about 3,300 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Likewise, the most fatal form of cancer is lung cancer, with 2,720 men and women estimated to have died from the disease in cigarette-loving South Carolina in 2004 — compared to about 600 deaths for breast cancer and 600 for prostate cancer.

Cancer prevention and treatment have been long neglected in South Carolina. Lawmakers should begin this year to address this most prevalent and dreaded disease.