Serving its goal of increasing access to cancer care, the Texas Medical Association’s Committee on Cancer is amplifying recruitment efforts for a new study aiming to decrease disparities among Black women, which the committee highlighted at its meeting at Business of Medicine Conference.
Black women in Texas have 41% higher rates of breast cancer mortality than White women and are more likely to be diagnosed with cancers at a later stage, despite an overall lower incidence of breast cancer, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. This pattern of inequity at the state level repeats itself nationally, with Black patients having the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial or ethnic group in the U.S. for most cancers.
“We know that there are significant disparities for Black women in Texas and beyond in terms of cancer diagnosis and cancer outcomes, so we thought it was a perfect way to make more people aware that the study was going on,” committee co-chair Terri Woodard, MD, told Texas Medicine Today. She is a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist in Houston.
The VOICES of Black Women study by the American Cancer Society (ACS) aims to enroll 100,000 Black female participants across 20 states, including Texas. It is believed to be the population’s largest cohort of its kind to better understand cancer risks and outcomes among Black women and help inform strategies to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship, according to ACS.
Dr. Woodard called the study “long overdue,” emphasizing the impact physician awareness of such efforts can have. She counts herself among the 2,000-plus VOICES study participants enrolled so far.
Shining a light on the study aligns with TMA’s policy on Addressing Cancer Health Disparities, crafted by the committee. In tandem with recognizing racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic cancer health disparities as public health issues, the policy supports physician awareness initiatives and encourages research to eliminate disparities in at-risk populations.
In conjunction with TMA’s Committee on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Uninsured, the Committee on Cancer also is composing a report detailing how deploying mobile mammography units in medically underserved regions can help combat disparities in access to cancer care.
Promoting study recruitment is an organic extension of that outreach, with widening the lens of cancer data particularly key, Dr. Woodard said.
“Diagnosis, treatments, workups, are based on the data that we have,” she said. “And if you’re not represented in that data, if you’re not seen, if you’re not heard, then whatever is developed is not keeping you in mind. This [study] is important because it finally gives Black women the chance to be seen and have [their] voices heard.”
Find
more information about TMA’s Boards, Councils, Committees, and Sections.
Jessica Ridge
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1395