Reseach on Women and Minorities

In accordance with statute (AB2055, 1991), CBCRP reports 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 of the research funded by CBCRP addresses an issue of particular concern to women. Minority women in general are under-represented in medical research and are underserved in medical practice.

CBCRP's advisory Council again made research that addresses the needs of underserved women a priority in 1998 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 considered this criterion in arriving at its recommendations regarding the grants that should be funded.

Of the 53 grants that CBCRP awarded in 1998, 32 (60%) were investigations that included human study samples. Women were the sole source of these samples in all of these clinical studies. 11 (21%) of the grants used human tissues or samples, while 21 (40%) used human subjects as participants. Of these 21 clinical studies, four had a major focus on minority women, five had a major focus on other underserved women, while an additional 18 studies included, but did not specifically focus on, minority or underserved women.

The following studies had a primary emphasis on minority and/or underserved women: