Nov 8, 2024 Story by: Editor
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The American Cancer Society is calling on Black women to participate in a new initiative aimed at combating breast cancer. This appeal is part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, with a strong focus on enrolling Black women in the study due to significant disparities in health outcomes.
Dr. Patience Odele, a breast surgical oncologist at Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael, highlighted the urgency. “African American women are doing worse than any ethnic group and they have about 40% higher risk of dying from breast cancer, compared to white women overall,” she explained.
Dr. Odele noted that Black women face the lowest survival rates across all ethnic groups, regardless of the stage at which their cancer is diagnosed. In response, Kaiser Permanente is actively working to improve these outcomes by providing targeted education, support, and regular screenings for Black women.
The American Cancer Society’s goal is to foster health equity by seeking 100,000 Black women without cancer to join its VOICES study. Dr. Fola May, an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA and VOICES Ambassador, emphasized the need for this representation in medical research, stating, “Unfortunately, there’s been a bias in medical research and that we are less likely to study Black and brown populations in science.”
This initiative marks a significant effort to address these disparities and work toward more equitable healthcare outcomes for Black women. Source: ABC 7 News
