Study participants will be surveyed on their behaviors, environmental exposures, and life experiences. Credit: Travis Dove for The Washington Post, via Getty Images
June 07, 2024 Story by: Editor
The American Cancer Society has initiated a groundbreaking and extensive study focused on a demographic that has historically been neglected despite high cancer rates and cancer-related fatalities: Black women.
This project, named VOICES of Black Women, represents the first extensive long-term population study aimed specifically at understanding the factors contributing to cancer incidence and mortality among Black women.
The researchers aim to enroll 100,000 Black women, aged 25 to 55, from Washington, D.C., and 20 other states with significant Black populations. These women, all without cancer at the start, will be surveyed biannually about their behaviors, environmental exposures, and life experiences over the next 30 years. Any cancers that develop will be meticulously tracked.
Previous studies by the American Cancer Society have been pivotal in identifying cancer causes, such as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, and the connection between consumption of red and processed meats and colon cancer risk.
Dr. Alpa Patel, senior vice president of population science at the society and co-principal investigator of the VOICES study alongside Dr. Lauren McCullough, noted that while some earlier studies included many Black women, they did not focus specifically on the factors driving cancer in this group.
“In general population studies, you tend to ask questions that are going to be applicable to the majority of the population,” Patel explained. “So going deeply into the lived experiences of discrimination, bias, systematic issues, environmental influences, and cultural aspects of health-related behaviors — those types of unique aspects of understanding what contributes to cancer in a population weren’t being asked about.”
Participants will be asked about their use of personal care products, including chemical hair straighteners, which have been linked to some cancers. The study will also track environmental stressors such as neighborhood walkability, crime rates, air pollution, access to healthy food, and proximity to liquor stores and cigarette vendors.
Black women face the highest death rates and lowest survival rates for many cancers compared to any other racial or ethnic group. For instance, Black men and women have higher colorectal cancer rates than their white counterparts. Black women are also twice as likely to die from uterine cancer and are more than twice as likely to die from stomach cancer. Additionally, they are 40 percent more likely to die from breast cancer.
Dr. Patel highlighted that the racial disparities in breast cancer survival are relatively recent, emerging since the 1970s. “We know now there are more aggressive tumors, especially at younger ages in Black women compared to white women, and we don’t fully understand why,” she said.
Recruitment for the VOICES study began late last year with a pilot phase in Atlanta and Hampton Roads, Virginia, and expanded to other states and Washington, D.C., in May.
Eligible participants must identify as Black, be assigned female at birth or identify as women, have no history of cancer (excluding common basal or squamous skin cancers), and be between the ages of 25 and 55.
The study does not require medication, clinical testing, treatment, or lifestyle changes.
Breana Berry, 30, who works in public health near Atlanta, enrolled as soon as she could, along with her mother, Jacquelyn Berry, 53. Jacquelyn, who is caring for a friend with breast cancer and lost her husband to pancreatic cancer three years ago, expressed a deep interest in the study. “My husband complained of stomach issues for two years and was misdiagnosed repeatedly,” she said. He died shortly after being correctly diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.“I’m interested in the whys,” Jacquelyn added. “Why are there such huge disparities? This is not an overnight study; you have to track people for a long time. It’s a huge commitment, but I’m in. I know our voices will make a difference — to my great-great-grandkids.” Source: The New York Times
