Abstract 3688. Survival benefit of adjuvant radiotherapy among women with high comorbidity burden and low-risk breast cancer – SEER-MHOS analysis.
What are your long-term goals?
Breast cancer survival has been improved; however, minorities, low-income, and medically underserved women remain at elevated risk of dying from breast cancer and worse health-related quality of life. My goal is to establish an extramurally funded research program to improve cancer health disparities in quality of life among cancer survivors. I am currently working on the SEER-MHOS data resource and plan to conduct a follow-up survey study for cancer survivors to identify barriers to health equity. In addition to my research, I want to be an educator and mentor who inspires the next generation of pre-health students to bridge clinical research and clinical practices to eliminate cancer health disparities.
Please share information about how the pandemic has impacted your research over the last two years.
The pandemic has impacted many aspects of the research. First, I put the plan for a survey study on hold, and I had to be creative in the approach/methodology to continue my research. After learning the technique from the online workshops, I added a systematic review and meta-analysis as a research method. This addition is a positive impact. Due to the pandemic, I was able to attend the online workshop. Another challenge is the delay in manuscripts getting peer-reviewed, and I have made an effort to comply with the requests for reviews in my area of expertise because I know this is a problem right now.