University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan
— -- I'm Dr. Jennifer Griggs at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. With improvements in cancer detection and treatment, breast cancer outcomes are improving.
Unfortunately not every woman is enjoying the benefits of advances in treatment, in particular African-American women, women who are poor and women who are heavy continue to have worse breast cancer outcomes than other women.
At the University of Michigan, our research is focusing on understanding why there are differences in outcome. In particular, my research group has demonstrated that black women, women who have less income or education, and women who are heavy are systematically underdosed with chemotherapy.
Our research program going forward is seeking to understand why there are differences in treatment, what we can do to fix the differences in treatment so that every woman with breast cancer can get the absolute best care and have the best shot at survival.
