TAMPA — VOICES of Black Women is a new study just launched by the American Cancer Society.
It will investigate why Black women die from cancer at higher rates than any other racial or ethnic group and collect critical data.
“To help scientists and researchers better understand contributors to cancer development and cancer outcomes,” said Dr. Tiffany Carson, Program Co-Leader of Health Outcomes and Behavior and Associate Member at Moffit Cancer Center. Dr. Carson is on the scientific advisory board for the study.
The study will follow 100,000 Black women for at least 30 years. This is the largest study of its kind, because experts are trying to change the shocking statistics.
- Black women are 60% more likely to die of cervical cancer compared to White women.
- Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Black women, and they are 40% more likely to die than White women
- For most types of cancer, Black women have higher death rates and the shortest survival rates of other racial and ethnic groups.
“We know that cancer is generally a result of complex interactions between behavior, environment, biology, and social exposure and the data that will be collected in VOICES of Black Women will really help researchers to have a comprehensive data set by which we can better disentangle these exposures to help understand how to better prevent and treat cancer particularly for Black women,” said Carson.
Those leading this study believe the will revolutionize what we know about cancer development and treatment for Black women.
“The capacity of information that we have to learn from a large, well-designed study like VOICES truly is limitless. The fact that VOICES specifically targets Black women is a key point of importance. We know that Black women have a higher burden of death from cancer,” said Carson.
The American Cancer Society is actively looking for participants. For more details on the study and how to get involved, click here.
