Dr. Lisa Newman on Eliminating Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer

In oncology today, there is an urgent need to better understand the implications of racial bias and disparities on the health outcomes of patients. Although breast cancer mortality rates decreased by 43 percent from 1989 to 2020, Black women remain more likely to die from breast cancer compared with White women, according to the 2022 American Cancer Society’s update on breast cancer statistics in the United States.

What is the underlying cause of disparities in breast cancer? It comes down to a variety of factors, from screening disparities and clinical trial participation to differences in genetics and biology. Today on OncTimes Talk, we sit down with Lisa A. Newman, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCO, to discuss each of these categories and explore how oncologists and the medical community at large can finally close the gap.

Newman is a world-renowned surgical oncologist and was appointed Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine. She also leads the multidisciplinary breast oncology programs at the NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center, providing compassionate care to breast cancer patients. Newman’s primary research has focused on ethnicity-related variation in breast cancer risk and management of high-risk patients.