For general surgery resident Dr. Faith Dickerson, personally witnessing the impact that breast cancer can have sparked a passion to make a change in the lives of these patients by becoming their advocate and clinical care provider. Now, with the support of a two-year, $143,000 Susan G. Komen ASPIRE grant, Dickerson will also be able to engage in mentored research to enhance her ability to make a scientific impact on the treatment of breast cancer.
The goal of Komen ASPIRE grants is to improve the diversity of the workforce that is engaged in breast cancer research by providing established researchers with funding to support trainees from communities that are underrepresented in medicine and have been historically marginalized in research. Division of Surgical Oncology Associate Professor and breast cancer researcher Dr. Heather Neuman is the lead investigator and Dickerson’s primary mentor for the grant.
“We desperately need more surgeon-scientists conducting breast cancer research who are demographically reflective of the patients we serve. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Faith on her project; she is an extremely promising surgical resident who is dedicated to improving the lives of breast cancer patients through research,” said Neuman.
As part of her mentored research experience, Dickerson will be using data that was previously collected for one of Neuman’s ongoing research studies, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute. Neuman and colleagues collected audio-recordings of initial consultation appointments occurring between 594 racially and socioeconomically diverse patients who were newly diagnosed with breast cancer and their surgeon. For her Komen ASPIRE project, Dickerson will be analyzing these recordings to specifically examine how surgeons and patients discuss breast reconstruction.
“I want to better understand how a surgeon conveys and how a patient receives information about reconstruction, and how this process could potentially contribute to socioeconomic disparities in breast reconstruction surgery,” said Dickerson. “Over the course of my medical training to date, I’ve developed a strong commitment to addressing disparities in cancer care. The Komen ASPIRE grant will further support my professional development by giving me a chance to develop a wide variety of research skills, learn how to engage key stakeholders, including patients, in the planning and execution of my research, and provide me with opportunities to network with other surgeon-scientists who are from groups that are underrepresented in medicine.”
For more information about the more than $10.5 million in research grants that were recently awarded by Susan G. Komen, including the complete list of their ASPIRE awardees, visit their press release.