| #WhenWeTrial We Save Lives Celebrating International Clinical Trials Day
What would the world look like without Black Women? I don't think any of us want to think about that but we are losing way too many Black women to Black Breast Cancer. Yes, Black Breast Cancer. It's a different and distinct disease. We are dying at a 41% higher mortality rate than White women and have a 39% higher recurrence rate. Black women under 35 get breast cancer at twice the rate of White women and die at 3 times the rate, all before they can get a mammogram at age 40. Black women between ages 40 and 49 have an 80% higher mortality rate than White women. I know we sound like a broken record with these horrific statistics but to Black women these numbers are a reality. And, we will continue to recite them until they change. We need more effective therapies! We need to advance the science. Black women deserve a better standard of care.
The only way to advance science is to get more Black women into clinical research. The statistics that exist for Black women with breast cancer today don't have to stay the same tomorrow. Therapies and drugs currently available for breast cancer have not been effectively tested on Black women, who make up less than 3% of breast cancer clinical trial participants. The current breast cancer ecosystem is failing us so we have to demand the standard of care we deserve.
Our #WhenWeTrial Movement is currently driving the trial recruiting of Black women but we all have much more work do.
Join us as we gather some phenomenal women who are not only talking the talk, but walking the walk to advance science.
Melissa Boneta Davis, PhD is the inaugural Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator spearheading the Institute of Genomic Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine. She is blazing trails on advancing the science on Triple Negative Breast Cancer, the sub-type that kills Black women at three times the rate of White women. Svasti Haricharan, PhD says significant molecular differences between the breast cells of white and Black women explain why Black women experience higher breast cancer mortality. She is tackling that in her work at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Stacey Bledsoe, after the death of her dad, is resolved to help ensure that clinical trials are available to everyone, including racial and ethnic minorities who have historically been underrepresented in these studies in her work at Gilead Sciences. Melanie Nix is driving innovative actions around recruiting Black women for clinical trials as a TNBC Thriver and program Chair at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Sharon Rivera-Sanchez is a trailblazer in TNBC clinical trials, having sought her own trial and traveled to get the best care she could get. Latoya Bolds-Johnson, took matters into her own hands to find a clinical trial for her Stage 3C TNBC. She says doing a clinical trial provided a medical trust fund for her three daughters under the age of 7. Join us for this critical conversation about working together to advance science to keep Black Women alive! #WhenWeTrial | 
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