For this type of breast cancer, physicians and researchers must understand the potential molecular mechanism(s) by which biology and modifiable factors, such as obesity, for instance, contribute to disparities in triple-negative breast cancer development in Black women.
How to increase clinical trial awareness for Black women
To increase clinical trial awareness and enrollment of Black women with breast cancer, researchers, and physicians, including myself, are involved in projects that include patient education; advocacy and outreach; patient navigation; and physician engagement and outreach for Black women with breast cancer.
This type of work can serve as a guide for increasing clinical trial participation among Black patients with other cancers that disproportionately affect this population, including colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers.
Taking part in a clinical trial involves trust. Distrust in medical professionals from the Black community remains due to the history of healthcare injustices committed against communities of color, such as the Tuskegee study, conducted from 1932 to 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service, in which researchers knowingly withheld treatment from Black sharecroppers with syphilis to study the progression of the disease.
Black women should feel empowered to take every opportunity available to them to detect breast cancer early through annual mammograms and encourage their family members and friends to do so as well. Black women diagnosed with breast cancer should ask questions, including discussion of clinical trial options and seek second opinions if necessary so that they are comfortable with their treatment plans.
If any issues may pose a barrier to receiving treatment or participating in a clinical trial, they should inform the team and be reassured that the medical team is dedicated to helping them navigate or resolve those barriers, so that they can receive the best treatment option. Importantly, they must be engaged in all the avenues available to help decrease breast cancer recurrence.
As more is discovered about breast cancer in Black women, providers need to focus on individualized care, and for investigators to continue diversifying their research. It is imperative that any development of new drugs or interventions from clinical trials are effective for everyone, which will ultimately lead to clinical trial participation to produce more innovative science and accurate information about drug efficacy.
Coral Omene, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist in the Breast Cancer Program and Program Director for Breast Cancer Disparities Research at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and RWJBarnabas Health, the state’s leading cancer program and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.