Background

Significant disparity exists in the diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship outcomes among Black breast cancer (BC) survivors

Unmet physical and emotional needs in BC survivors are well documented, but there is mounting evidence that Black BC survivors have more significant survivorship issues and a greater burden of illness than White counterparts.

Barriers to rehabilitation and recovery care exist for all BC survivors but are magnified in Black survivors due to systemic racism, healthcare provider bias and discrimination, lack of culturally relevant care models, and socio-economic barriers.

There is limited literature on lived personal and professional experiences of racial disparity in BC survivorship.

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Methods

A narrative approach was utilized to identify main themes and subthemes from a series of four virtual healthcare provider forums that explored lived personal and professional experiences, issues and potential solutions surrounding racial disparity in BC survivorship.

The forums included perspectives of patients, healthcare providers, researchers, and stakeholders in the BC field.

An independent analysis was performed by the investigators, all of whom have emic perspectives with respect to race and/or breast cancer.

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The findings provide compelling documentation of lived personal and professional experiences of racial disparity in BC survivorship. These issues have been described in the literature for nearly two decades. Potential solutions exist and must be enacted immediately to ensure equitable survivorship outcomes for Black individuals following a BC diagnosis.

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“The Black community is reluctant to complain about side effects.” (BC Survivor, Advocate)

“There is a continued cycle of misinformation within the Black community.” (BC Survivor, BC Physical Therapist (PT))

“We cannot treat people equally, need to trat them equitably.“ (BC PT, Researcher, Advocate)

“Need diversity of team and informed care to make sure that diverse groups of women feel safe.” (BC Survivor, Advocate)

“Navigation is key to increase referral [to rehab].” (BC Survivor, BC Surgeon, Researcher)

“…prospective surveillance is an important cost outlay to utilize to achieve equitable care.” (BC PT, BC Researcher)

“Collaboration with community organizations is critical.” (BC Survivor, Advocate)

“Make sure people [healthcare providers] are well trained to work with different populations even if team can’t be racially and ethnically diverse.” (Researcher)