Dialogue with Breast Cancer Survivors
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Non-technical introduction to the research topic: It is estimated that in 2005, 19,240 African American women were diagnosed with breast cancer. Survival rates differ among ethnic groups; notably African American women have a lower 5-year survival rate compared to Caucasian women and this gap is widening. Part of this gap is due to the fact that African American women are more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage compared to Caucasian women. In addition, poverty and mistrust of the medical system may result in poor standards of care. While not all African American women are low income at diagnosis many are, and others become poor because of lack of health insurance and the cost of medication/surgery. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 African American women have been found to gain significantly more weight during treatment compared to other ethnic populations, and body weight and weight gain has also been associated with increased risk of breast cancer recurrence and increased risk in all-cause mortality. Many African American women also have low knowledge of breast cancer risk, benefits of treatment, etc. and this impedes them in from being active in their own care.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The question(s) or central hypotheses of the research: The primary aim of this retreat is to dialog with breast cancer survivors, practitioners and researchers about the needs of African-American women with breast cancer who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our hypotheses are:
 
 
 
 •It will be feasible to develop a weekend symposium for breast cancer researchers, clinicians, and African American survivors?
 
 
 
 •The symposium will educate patients, practitioners, and researchers about the challenges that African American women with breast cancer face.
 
 
 
 •African American women from the Bay Area community will give researchers insight into how to design an interesting and feasible multi-modal intervention that includes exercise, to address the problem of weight gain during chemotherapy treatment.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The knowledge gained from the retreat will be used to apply for NIH funding to study the benefits of interventions designed as a result of this conference. In addition it is hoped that the knowledge gained by the survivors will help them to become more active in their own treatment and to educate other survivors.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The general methodology: The symposium will include 32 members from Sisters Network and other African-American women with breast cancer that might not yet be part of the group. We also will also invite leading breast cancer researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Comprehensive Cancer Center and San Francisco State University (SFSU) to share their findings, dialogue and to work on future collaborative research projects with other researchers and women from the Sister’s Network. The retreat will take place, Friday-Sunday, Aug. 25-27, 2006. The sessions will last for 90 minutes and will include a 20-minute researcher/clinician/survivor dialogue, with the remaining 30-45 minutes devoted to group discussion. Each group will have a note-taker that will summarize the results of the session. Proceedings from the conference will be published on the SFSU/UCSF RIMI grant website. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Topics of discussion are: treatment and diagnostic issues; health disparities, specifically those facing African-American women; benefits of exercise; environmental health and breast cancer; spirituality and social support; and social services for women with breast cancer. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Innovative elements of the project: This symposium is innovative in that it invites African American breast cancer survivors to be full partners in the planning and participation. They will be a vital part of the symposium, and they will be invited to share their views and experiences as well as hopes for further psychosocial interventions. We intend for this symposium to be an education for the researchers/clinicians, as well as the survivors.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Advocacy involvement and human issues: The advisory board consists of survivors and advocates, as well as researchers. They include representatives from the Bayview Hunter’s Point, Marin Breast Cancer Watch, and Sister’s network. As stated above, the symposium is dedicated to reducing the burden of breast cancer for African American women.