Breast Cancer Among Alaska Natives Leveling

After tripling for nearly three decades, rates of breast cancer among Alaska Native women may be leveling off at last, the Anchorage Daily News reported. At least that is what the latest statistics suggest. While the incidence of breast cancer rose sharply among Alaska Native women toward the end of the 20th century, from 40 cases per 100,000 (from 1969 to 1973) to 138 cases per 100,000 (1994 to 1998), they dropped to 132 cases from 1999 to 2004, according to a recent Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium study. Breast cancer used to be pretty rare among Alaska Native women, but now their incident rates match those of white women nationwide and exceeds by half the rate of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the lower 48.