Making Breast Cancer Care More Inclusive

Most guidelines and data on breast cancer have come from studies of white women of European descent. “I don’t experience the screening recommendations in the same way that white women do,” says Yvette Gullatt, chief diversity officer for the University of California system. “I experience breast cancer in Black women as highly aggressive and lethal. I’ve had white colleagues who were diagnosed with breast cancer and go to radiation in the morning, and are back at work by 10 a.m.; they never miss a day.” Gullatt joined the WISDOM study, which stands for Women Informed to Screen Depending On Measures of risk, in the hopes that she can improve breast cancer care for Black women. “We need more studies like this because [researchers] need more data in order to diagnose and treat us better,” she says. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The WISDOM study was launched in 2016 by Dr. Laura Esserman with the hope of bringing a more personalized approach to figuring out each woman’s risk for the disease, plus tailor a screening and treatment program appropriate for that risk. Esserman and her team are working closely with community advocates to increase awareness and education about clinical trials among Black women, who already have a deep mistrust of the medical system given notorious episodes of medical exploitation, including the Tuskeegee and Henrietta Lacks experiences. In those cases, Black patients were used in resea...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news