Abstract A18: Exploration of Florida blacks' understanding of precision medicine for cancer care and treatment

Abstract

Background and Objective: African-Americans in the US have the highest cancer mortality rates. Recognizing the need to address this disparity via technological and scientific innovation, In January 2015, President Obama introduced the Precision Medicine Initiative in his State of the Union Address. Allocating $215 million dollars in the 2016 budget, precision medicine should address these cancer health disparities. Yet, little is known about self-identified African-Americans/Blacks' knowledge of precision medicine.

Strategy: The objective is to understand Floridan African American men and women's knowledge of Precision Medicine and ability to successfully explain underlying concepts relative to the Precision Medicine Initiative. Using a cross-sectional design, Florida Blacks' were recruited at health forums, barbershops, salons, and churches in the state of Florida. Participants completed a self-administered survey that asked about their demographics, knowledge of precision medicine and ability to explain PMI concepts. Participants who completed the study were given either a $5 gift card of a shirt.

Results: A total of 132 participants completed the self-administered survey. Majority of the participants were female (64%) and Native U.S Blacks (85% African American of African descent). 62% were college trained and 71% were currently employed. 7% of participants had been diagnosed with cancer before and roughly 62% of them had private insurance. Well over 70% of participants have never heard of the concepts precision medicine, and pharmacogenomics. Over 50% of participants had never heard of personalized medicine, individualized medicine, and genomic sequencing. Participants were more familiar with the terms clinical trials, abnormal genes, hereditary risk, and genetic abnormality. They were also able to successfully describe the four terms that they were more familiar with. 73% participants stated that they did not know whether or not the use of precision medicine would improve cancer care and treatment.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that majority of participants are unaware of precision medicine. There was little to no understanding about the role of precision medicine in cancer care and treatment. There is a great need to educate minority populations about the Precision Medicine Initiative and identify facilitators and barriers to engagement in order to address health disparities effectively and efficiently.

Citation Format: Christina L. Redwine, Folakemi Odedina, Debra Lyon, Jennifer Nguyen. Exploration of Florida blacks' understanding of precision medicine for cancer care and treatment. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eighth AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 13-16, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25(3 Suppl):Abstract nr A18.