Abstract 3715: Increasing access for disparate women to participate in breast cancer research

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Ill.), 2011-04, Vol.71 (8_Supplement), p.3715-3715
• Main Authors: Bondurant, Kristina L., Goodell, Melanie E., Phillips, Martha M., Kadlubar, Susan, Klimberg, Suzanne, Henry-Tillman, Rhonda S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445
• DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3715

The purpose of our study is to increase recruitment of rural and disparate populations within the Spit for the Cure Breast Cancer Cohort. The Spit for the Cure Breast Cancer Cohort being established at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences provides a repository of information and DNA samples to study breast cancer in Southern women. Currently, over 19,000 women from Arkansas and surrounding states have been recruited into the cohort. Demographics of the cohort closely match the demographics of the state of Arkansas, though our cohort is better educated and younger on average than the state's overall female population. One of our goals is to over-sample disparate populations in rural areas, which presents many challenges; these areas tend to have sparse populations which are located in largely agricultural areas of Arkansas. Furthermore, it has been reported in literature that a lower percentage of minority populations and rural populations participate in biorepositories and cancer research. These are the same populations that suffer from limited access to health services. The assumption is that these populations are not willing to participate in cancer research; however, we hypothesize that disparate populations would enroll in research studies if given access to research opportunities. As a novel method for reaching underrepresented populations, Spit for the Cure recruiters collaborated with a mobile mammography unit, the Mammovan, based out of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. We compared the demographics of participants recruited through community events in Southeast Arkansas, whose residents live in the rural Delta region, to recruitment from the Mammovan in that same region. Mammovan participants from Southeast Arkansas had a lower education level compared to women in that same area recruited through community events; 53.7% of Mammovan participants had no education beyond high school, compared to 25% of community participants (p-value