Therapeutic innovations in oncology have led to major breakthroughs in patient outcomes, with more than one-third of specialty drugs in the pipeline being investigated for clinical development in cancer. However, the lack of diversity in clinical trials remains a critical issue perpetuating inequities in oncology for underserved patients and racial and ethnic minority populations

“Our findings highlight racial and ethnic disparities in declination of treatment recommendations and overall survival, suggesting the need for equity-focused interventions,” the authors write. 

Chemotherapeutic agents are widely known to carry an increased risk of heart failure and other forms of cardiovascular damage. A new study from the University of Toronto finds that Black patients or patients of African ancestry are at particular risk, with 71% higher odds of experiencing cardiotoxicity compared to White patients.

Microvascular function is lower is Black men following a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer, compared to white men, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia. Researchers will present their work this week at the American Physiology Summit, the flagship annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (APS), in Long Beach, California.

In Black women, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. In fact, 41% of Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women despite a lower incidence of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. This is the same for Black women diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive, HER2 negative breast cancer. While the overall survival rate is favorable, Black women face a higher mortality rate