Dr. Roy Weiner on the Importance of Diversity in Cancer Research

Roy Weiner, MD, Associate Dean for Clinical Research and Training Associate Director of Clinical Research for Tulane Cancer Center discusses the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in cancer research.

Across the board, there isn’t enough data on how different racial and ethnic groups react to different cancer therapies, making it difficult to make the best possible treatment decisions, says Weiner.

For women at high risk for breast cancer for example, tamoxifen can be very beneficial, says Weiner. However only 1% of the women in the original study looking at tamoxifen were African American. This limited data makes it difficult for Weiner to recommend the drug to his African American patients.

To solve this problem, Weiner is working with Xavier University to create a center that will concentrate on solving and understanding outcome disparities based on race and ethnicity and promote more diverse patient populations in clinical trials.