Strissel Katherine J, Nicholas Dequina A, Castagne-Charlotin Myriam, Ko Naomi, Denis Gerald V
Cancer Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
Cancer Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.; Department of Microbiology, Training Program in Inflammatory Disorders, Boston, MA, USA.
Clin Med Insights Womens Health. 2016 Jul 14;9(Suppl 1):57-61. doi: 10.4137/CMWH.S34698. eCollection 2016.
African-American women, a historically understudied and underserved group, have increased risk for triple-negative breast cancer and obesity-associated disease. Obesity-associated metabolic diseases share a common link of low grade chronic inflammation, but not all obese women have metabolic disturbances or are inflamed. One goal of our ongoing research is to identify blood biomarkers that can predict increased risk of breast cancer in women who have obesity or metabolic dysfunction. However, vulnerable populations that stand to benefit most from advances in biomedical research are also underrepresented in research studies. The development of effective, novel approaches for cancer prevention and treatment will require significant basic medical research effort to establish the necessary evidence base in multiple populations. Work with vulnerable human subjects at a safety net hospital enabled us to comment on potential obstacles to obtaining serological and tissue specimens from African-American women. Here, we report some unexpected barriers to participation in our ongoing research study that might inform future efforts.
非裔美国女性是一个历史上研究不足且服务欠缺的群体，她们患三阴性乳腺癌和肥胖相关疾病的风险增加。肥胖相关的代谢疾病有低度慢性炎症这一共同联系，但并非所有肥胖女性都有代谢紊乱或炎症。我们正在进行的研究的一个目标是确定血液生物标志物，这些标志物可以预测肥胖或代谢功能障碍女性患乳腺癌风险的增加。然而，最能从生物医学研究进展中受益的弱势群体在研究中也代表性不足。开发有效、新颖的癌症预防和治疗方法将需要大量基础医学研究工作，以在多个群体中建立必要的证据基础。在一家安全网医院与弱势人类受试者合作，使我们能够对从非裔美国女性获取血清学和组织标本的潜在障碍发表评论。在此，我们报告了参与我们正在进行的研究中的一些意外障碍，这些障碍可能为未来的工作提供参考。
