Weill Cornell Medicine has received a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve equitable access to care, quality of life and survival outcomes for young people with all stages of breast cancer.
The grant will enable Weill Cornell Medicine to enhance care coordination for patients and caregivers to optimize support of physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs, while offering culturally relevant resources and targeted interventions. The initiative will include a focus on racially, ethnically and socio-economically diverse young breast cancer survivors across Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, including Black, Asian and Jewish women, with the goal of reducing symptom burden, increasing adherence to treatment and follow-up care, and improving survival outcomes.
Targeted educational materials, in-person learning opportunities, coordinated strategies to lessen treatment side effects and dedicated clinics serving specific populations will help ensure patients "continue to live with the best possible quality of life, take care of their loved ones, work and do whatever they desire with as little interruption as possible," said oncologist and principal investigator Dr. Vered Stearns, who last year was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as a professor of medicine from Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Younger people continue to be diagnosed with breast cancer at an increasing rate in the United States. About 10% of all new breast cancer cases occur in those 45 and younger. Underrepresented subgroups in the United States are more likely to experience delays in diagnosis or poorer outcomes. Black women, for example, have the lowest survival rate for all stages of breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
"Young women with breast cancer often present with tumors that are biologically more aggressive," said co-principal investigator Dr. Tessa Cigler, who is an associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and an attending oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "These patients have a set of unique needs and can certainly benefit from improved care coordination and support services."
Stearns and Cigler will engage community stakeholders and lead a cross-disciplinary team of Weill Cornell Medicine experts on the initiative.
Read the full version of this story on the Weill Cornell Medicine website.
Many Weill Cornell Medicine physicians and scientists maintain relationships and collaborate with external organizations to foster scientific innovation and provide expert guidance. The institution makes these disclosures public to ensure transparency. For this information, please see the profile for Dr. Tessa Cigler.
Andrea Cooper is a freelance writer for Weill Cornell Medicine.
