The NCI (National Cancer Institute) awarded a 13.7 million dollar grant to a UMass Boston partnership with the Dana-Farber cancer research institute. The UMB D-F/HCC (Harvard Care Center) received this funding to continue unique cancer research that UMass Boston is specially equipped for.
The nationally recognized research these institutions are pursuing investigates some disturbing statistics. For example, according to the NCI’s Cancer Health Disparities website, the overall incidence of any cancer (breast cancer, mouth cancer etc.) is 25 percent more prevalent in the African American population than it is in the Caucasian population.
UMass Boston Chancellor Keith Motley, announcing the grant in the UMB office of communications press release said, “Our partnership recognizes the critical need to continue designing and developing an inclusive approach to promoting and achieving human diversity in the areas of cancer research, training, and outreach. As we know, cancer maims and kills regardless of our socioeconomic status.”
Despite a century of strides in overall cancer research, it wasn’t until 1999 under the direction of a White House initiative that there was an “NIH-wide (National Institutes of Health) working group charged with “developing a strategic plan for reducing health disparities”, according to the NCI website. A definition of “health disparities” wasn’t even given until the turn of the new millennium.
“Differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States” is becoming an issue of greater and greater concern as the minority population grows. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that “approximately 30 percent of the population belongs to a racial or ethnic minority group” according to the 2000 census – and this number has only continued to grow over the past decade.
Thus, with an ever increasing minority population, an issue like this one (driven to the surface by news of multi-million dollar grants) will only grow.
According to the American Cancer Association, as of 2002, there were 555,550 deaths from cancer a year. Although this number is declining in relation to the overall population, well over 1,000 people are still dying every single day from one form of cancer or another.
This is a violent, complex epidemic that is responsible for millions and millions of deaths. Research is the key to unlocking the mysteries of cancer – research will someday lead to more effective treatment or even a cure. Often, broad research of a disease is not enough; that is to say, “cancer research” encompasses entire fields of the medical discipline. By understanding why cancer affects one population greater than another, our overall understanding will increase and researchers will be that much closer to invaluable treatment.
UMass Boston is in an important position as a research institution and school to investigate discrepancies in wellness and medical-research among minority populations and the US population as a whole. Our campus is as diverse as they come, with an undergraduate student population of around 50 percent non-white, according to the website’s statistical portrait as of 2009.
Students come from all over the country as well as all over the world, from all backgrounds, social-classes, ethnicities, and political or religious viewpoints to UMass Boston. By partnering with our school, the Dana-Farber Institute is reaching demographics few other institutions could connect with so easily and productively, optimizing this crucial battle against one of humanity’s deadliest enemies.