Abstract B075: The "let's talk about Black people and cancer" conference
Authors: Adeboye Teniola , Oni Georgette 
Published: September 2024

In the United Kingdom, despite having a healthcare service that is free at the point of access, inequalities in cancer care persist. Recent data shows that for certain cancer groups (e.g. breast cancer), Black patients present with worse grade and stage leading to poorer outcomes. Reasons for the disparities are multifactorial but include lack of awareness in the community, structural barriers to accessing healthcare, limited research into genetic variability and/or biological differences, and hesitancy to engage with health care professionals due to historic wrongs. Often different stakeholders work in different silos to try and remediate these barriers however they are not often in one space and have the opportunity to learn from patient experiences and how they can all dovetail together to improve patient outcomes. In an attempt to bring different sectors together the senior author established the “Let’s talk about Black people and cancer” conference 2024. The aim of this event was to increase awareness and understanding of cancer in the UK Black population. Methods This event covered the major cancer groups (breast, prostate, haematological, bowel and gynaecological) focusing on genomics, symptom awareness, screening programs, and how and when to access secondary care. We sought patient feedback from this conference style intervention to see the effect on attendees in terms of increase in knowledge specifically around Black people and cancer. This study utilized a two-part survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the conference, assessing knowledge held by registered attendees pre- and post-conference. A 5-point Likert scale was used to extract degrees of opinion, providing accurate and representative feedback. There was a total of 46 questions in the survey targeting the demographics of the attendees, their connection to cancer, and knowledge about cancer including the risks/outcomes regarding Black people specifically. Results The world cancer day conference had 190 registrants. 83 responses to the questionnaire (43.7% response rate). Pre-conference questionnaires highlighted around two thirds had knowledge of the 3 major screening programs, but after the conference this increased to more than 90%. A similar trend was noticed when looking at change in knowledge regarding the five cancer groups covered. Conclusion We have demonstrated that this targeted conference style intervention was effective in raising awareness not just for the public but for those professionals involved in the delivery of cancer care for Black people. While these are snap shots in time it would be useful to see how that information translates in a longitudinal fashion in terms of positive modifications in health behaviors and delivery of services.

Citation Format: Teniola Adeboye, Georgette Oni. The "let's talk about Black people and cancer" conference [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B075.