Research on Women & Minorities
In accordance with statute (AB2055, 1991), CBCRP reports on the extent to which state-funded research projects address medical issues of particular concern to women and minorities. Breast cancer is a disease that strikes women almost exclusively—therefore, all research funded by CBCRP addresses an issue of particular concern to women. Minority women in general are under-represented in medical research and are underserved in medical practice. CBCRP's advisory Council again made research that addresses the needs of underserved women a priority in 1997 because of documented disparities in the morbidity and mortality of breast cancer among these women. Applicants were required to explain how their proposed research would address the needs of underserved women and the reviewers who evaluated grant applications were asked to rate them on this criterion. The Council took this criterion into account in arriving at its recommendations regarding the grants that should be funded.
Of the 66 grants that CBCRP awarded in 1997, 33 (50%) were investigations that included human study samples. Women were the sole source of these samples in all of these clinical studies. 23 (35%) of the grants used human tissues or samples, while 12 (18%) used human subjects as participants. Of these 12 clinical studies, five had a major focus on minority or underserved women, while an additional seven studies included, but did not specifically focus on, minority women.
The following five studies had a primary emphasis on minority or underserved women:
- The Breast Cancer Care Center: Innovative Care for the Underserved
- Physical Activity, Diet and Menarche in a Multiethnic Cohort
- Gene-Diet/Tobacco Interactions in Breast Cancer in Asians
- Breast Cancer Risk Factors: Lesbians and Heterosexual Women
- Breast Screening Program in the Hmong American Community
