Research on Women and Minorities
CBCRP and all state agencies and the University of California are requested by the legislature to report on the extent to which state-funded research projects address medical issues of particular concern to women and minorities.
Breast cancer is a disease that strikes women almost exclusively - therefore all research funded by CBCRP addresses an issue of particular concern to women. Minority women in general are under-represented in medical research and are under-served in medical practice. CBCRP's advisory Council again made research that addresses the needs of underserved women a priority in 1996 because of documented disparities in the morbidity and mortality of breast cancer among these women. Applicants were required to explain how their proposed research would address the needs of underserved women and the reviewers who evaluated grant applications were asked to rate them on this criterion. The Council took this criterion into account in arriving at its recommendations regarding the grants that should be funded.
In 1996, 31 of 61 (51%) of the studies funded by CBCRP involved humans or human tissues. All of these studies focused on women. 28 of the studies (90% of the studies using humans) included minorities (those studies that did not include minorities used human cell lines only) and 8 focused on underserved populations. 10 of the CBCRP grants (32% of grants with human subjects) involved direct patient interventions.
