Black women experience less-favorable treatment outcomes than do white women – likely related to treatment delays. But those outcomes may also be influenced by another factor, social isolation, said Dr. Kemi Doll (above), an oncologist-gynecologist who specializes in endometrial cancer at the University of Washington.
“Black women are uniquely at risk for social isolation due to cultural, socioeconomic or physical stressors,” she said.
“Part of it is that they simply don’t know about this condition, so they might have been bleeding for months or years before being evaluated.” As well, “the quality of our healthcare system really isn’t the same for Black women as it is for everyone else, especially when it comes to their reproductive healthcare,” she said.
With a new $6 million research grant, Doll plans to study how an intervention to decrease Black women’s social isolation might improve their rates of treatment completion and their overall outcomes. It is the first randomized trial to look at this issue.
See “Could isolation hurt Black women with endometrial cancer?” by Barbara Clements on the University of Washington website (December 7, 2020)
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