Expert Speaks to Needs of Underserved Breast Cancer Populations

Monique Gary, DO, MSc, FACS, in an interview with CancerNetwork^®, discussed her takeaways from a study published in JAMA Network Open that highlighted an increase in early-onset cancers from 2010 to 2019, including where future efforts should be focused to improve outcomes for at-risk breast cancer populations including Black women.

Specifically, Gary, a breast surgeon and medical director at Grand View Health, emphasized the need to build upon a growing body of evidence supporting the use of supplemental screening for patients with dense breasts and earlier screening for patients of color. She also suggested that implementing supportive therapies such as fertility preservation and hair follicle conservation may increase trial recruitment and enrollment in breast cancer.

Transcript:

There’s so much rich information that we can glean from this [study], even as it’s still not enough information, and even as it looks at 2010 to 2019. Our focus needs to be on teasing out the data that relates to marginalized and at-risk communities. Even though we see some changes in the incidence and changes in mortality, those individuals who are at the highest risk of breast cancer—women of color and Black women [specifically] have the highest mortality of any group. These types of studies did not necessarily include a large cross-section of women of color [including] Hispanic women. We need to look into those data and see where those concomitant increases are.

We need to look at the screening guidelines, and this should be a huge clarion call for all those individuals who are involved in making guidelines because they continue to say there is insufficient evidence to recommend that things such as supplemental screening for women with dense breasts and starting screening earlier for women of color—Black women, in particular. As we continue to say there’s insufficient evidence, we have to then build upon this growing body of evidence. I would love to see us look to do things like more trial recruitment and enrollment in younger patients. We need to make sure that we think of their unique considerations. They may be working; they may have issues with childcare; and they may need supportive therapies like fertility preservation.

There are a whole host of things to think about, even down to supportive therapies like cold caps and preserving their hair follicles. There are so many things that you think about when you involve young people in this oncologic treatment journey, that we need to look at from the treatment lens, but also from the research lens.

Reference

Koh B, Hao Tan DJ, Ng HN, et al. Patterns in cancer incidence among people younger than 50 years in the US, 2010 to 2019. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(8):e2328171. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28171