American Cancer Society & Pfizer Award Grant to UNC Lineberger

The American Cancer Society and Pfizer have awarded a grant for nearly $400,000 to Katherine Reeder-Hayes, MD, MSc, MBA, and Stephanie Wheeler, PhD, MPH, at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to address racial disparities in breast cancer care quality in North Carolina. This grant is one of 10 grants around the country focused on reducing racial disparities and helping optimize cancer outcomes for Black men and women. The goal is to address systemic race-related barriers and disparities in the delivery of care that impact outcomes across all cancer types. In all, the grants total more than $3.7 million.

In the United States, white women have a 3% greater chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer, but Black women are 40% more likely to die of the disease. The disparities are even greater in North Carolina, where Black women are 50% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women, according to state data. Drs. Reeder-Hayes and Wheeler aim to develop a quality improvement program to identify and target racial disparities in breast cancer care in North Carolina, using claims-based quality measures to identify geographic sub-regions of high racial disparity in breast cancer care and engaging community stakeholders in an audit and feedback program to identify potential explanations and solutions.

“We welcome this opportunity to partner with the University of North Carolina on this grant at a time when racism is at the center of our national conversation to reduce disparities and strive for equity in the delivery of cancer care,” said Megan Wessel, vice president, cancer control of the American Cancer Society.

“I believe most North Carolinians agree with the core issue at stake in our research – that every person should have a fair opportunity to get high quality cancer care that matches their needs and values,” said Dr. Reeder-Hayes, associate professor and chief of breast oncology at UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger. “Fortunately, high quality care doesn’t actually have to cost more, and most health care systems and providers really want to provide the best care. They just need good information on where to improve and where to focus.”

“Importantly, this work leverages lessons learned over the past decade in reducing the burden of colorectal cancer in North Carolina through the Carolina Cancer Screening Initiative,” added Dr. Wheeler, professor of health policy and management at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and associate director of community outreach and engagement at UNC Lineberger. “It also positions us well to extend this approach to other cancers, including lung, bladder and gynecologic cancers where we observe inequitable access to care and disproportionately worse outcomes in medically underserved populations statewide.”

The grant, funded by Pfizer Global Medical Grants and overseen by the American Cancer Society, is part of the Addressing Racial Disparities in Cancer Care Competitive Grant Program, a three-year collaboration working to promote equity in cancer outcomes for Black men and women.