Breast Cancer Rate Will Increase in O.C. Women, Report Says

Orange County women will contract breast cancer at a higher rate than anywhere else in the state in 1992, according to an American Cancer Society report released Friday. “It’s not a lack of resources in Orange County,” said Hoda Anton-Culver, a spokeswoman for the society. “Women here generally have a high economic-socio status, but yet, we are not using preventive health care measures.”

The study also projects that 4,020 people in Orange County will die in 1992 of cancer, and another 9,850 will be found to have the disease.

Statewide, about 52,900 Californians will die of cancer in 1992 and another 120,760 new cases will be discovered, according to the report.

The projections are based on data from 1988, the last year in which every county collected this information. This is the first year the state compared cancer rates by county. The report, released at the society’s California Division’s 45th annual meeting in San Diego, contains the first estimate of county-by-county cancer tolls.

Most of the estimated deaths statewide--14,435--will be caused by lung cancer, according to the study.

In Orange County, the leading cause of death is also expected to be lung cancer, but the most new cancer cases--1,695--are expected to be breast cancer.

“I think maybe we are not doing as well as we hoped we would be in implementing the mammography program,” Anton-Culver said of the medical examination used to detect breast cancer.

A study of Orange County statistics during the last five years also showed that the largest increase in breast cancer is occurring among non--Latino whites.

When women were asked why they did not receive mammograms, they said they did not think about it, did not think they were important or were not advised by their physicians to have the test, Anton-Culver said.

She said that is particularly frustrating, because most of the victims can afford health insurance and health care.

The study also found an alarming rate of cervical cancer among Latino women in Orange County.

“That particular observation is not totally new,” Anton-Culver said, “but it keeps getting confirmed and the risk is about three times that of non-Hispanic whites.”

Among Orange County residents in general, the study found a continuing high rate of malignant skin cancer, Anton-Culver said.

Those three forms of cancer--breast, cervical and skin--all can be prevented through regular health exams, she said.

Society officials said the new figures will not only track the cancer rate, but help guide their public education and cancer-prevention programs. Anton-Culver said it also may point to a need for public health clinics to provide free Pap smears. Early detection, she said, would ultimately reduce health care costs for those stricken with cancer.

Probably one of the greatest challenges in the public education campaign for the cancer society may be in the area of melanoma, Anton-Culver said.

Instead of tanning gradually, sun worshipers sometimes burn their skin repeatedly, causing the fatal disease.

“If it is diagnosed early, it can be taken care of,” she said. “But at the late stages, it’s a very bad cancer in prognosis and mortality is high.”

Anton-Culver said that while the lung cancer rate is high, the society has made great strides in reducing the number of new smokers.

“It’s not sexy anymore, it’s not glamorous anymore,” she said.

The study also found that “typically, cancer is a disease of the aging.” Half of all cancers occur between the ages of 55 and 74, and more cancers occur after age 85 than between birth and age 35.

Statewide, the report found that blacks have a higher incidence and mortality rate for most of the common types of cancer. Also, among blacks and Latinos, cancer is more often diagnosed at a later stage.