OAKLAND, Calif. - OAKLAND, Calif. African-American women are less likely to get breast cancer than white, Asian and Latina women, but once diagnosed with breast cancer, they are more likely to die from it.

According to the American Cancer Society, the number of women dying from breast cancer has steadily declined since 1990, thanks to earlier diagnosis and better treatment.

However, a 2008 study found that death rates among African-American women with breast cancer stopped declining in 26 states and, nationwide, there is a widening gap in the survival rate of breast cancer among African Americans versus white, Asian and Latina women.

The society also says the disparity is due to a later detection of cancer among African-American women, when the cancer already is advanced. It attributes the later detection to less access to health insurance, according to the American Cancer Society 2008 cancer statistics report.

In California, breast cancer hits 133 white women out of every 100,000 women and hits 118 black women of every 100,000.

Genetically, white women are the most disposed to cancer, followed by African-American women, while Asian and Latino women both have relatively low chances of getting breast cancer. Only 89 out of every 100,000 Asian and Latino women get breast cancer, respectively.

However, the death rate among women diagnosed with breast cancer is highest among black women, at 33.8 among 100,000, and second highest among white women, at 25 deaths per 100,000.

Asian and Hispanic women fare better than either white or African-American women. The death rate from breast cancer among Asian women is 12.6 out of every 100,000 and for Latina women, it's 16 out of every 100,000.

That stark reality - that afflicted African-American women are 36 percent more likely to die from the disease than white women - is what prompted the Northern California Cancer Center and the Women's Cancer Resource Center to organize a cancer awareness day for black women Saturday.

"We're trying to reach people who would not normally get a mammogram," said Pamela Ratliff, community education program manager for the Northern California Cancer Center. "We want to raise awareness of this disease among African-American women in the hope that information will empower them to be advocates about their health and make sound decisions about their health."

"African-American women often discover their own breast cancer because it is already advanced," said Ratliff, adding that if someone is able to discover a lump, it usually means the lump has been there a few years.

"Sometimes women are not able to go to the physician on a regular basis because of lack of health insurance," or the financial burden of going to see a doctor, she said. Another factor is "fear of the unknown," and not wanting to undergo mammograms.

During Saturday's conference, organizers hope not only to deliver health care advice, but to support women spiritually and emotionally with taking care of themselves.

"African-American women are very spiritual beings. So we want to connect with them on a spiritual basis," Ratliff said.

But she also wants the women at the conference to know that prayer can be accompanied with practical action to stay healthy.

Jackie Pugh of Oakland, Calif., is a breast cancer survivor and now works with the American Cancer Society in speaking to groups of women about the importance of taking care of themselves.

Pugh, who was 27 when she found out she had cancer, had to be her own advocate to get a proper diagnosis. She felt a lump and went to the doctor.

"The doctors said that because I was so young let's just wait a bit to see what happens," she said. "They said because 'you are young, it is probably just a cyst.'"

But Pugh was able to change her health care plan six months later and her new provider sent her for a mammogram. The test showed a lump and she was sent to a surgeon who said she had cancer.

Seventeen years later, at age 44, Pugh is here to tell her story. But she said she wouldn't be if she hadn't been strong and taken her health into her own hands.

"The conference is to make you informed and make you know that even if you do get cancer diagnosis, there is life after diagnosis," she said.