Undergrads focus work on Latina breast cancer survivors

Two undergraduate students stand in front of their research poster while one of them explains the posters findings to a woman who is facing them.

When Karina Reyes began her research on Latina breast cancer survivors’ adherence to anticancer medication, she thought about herself and her mom.

“I could relate,” said Reyes, a junior in LAS.

She looked over at her research partner, Jackelyn Cantoral, a kinesiology student, before adding that they are both Latinas. “It hit home for me,” she said.

Their research focuses on Hispanic women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Their research subjects, who had already undergone active treatments such as chemotherapy, surgery or radiation, were prescribed an oral anti-cancer medication known as endocrine — or hormonal — therapy.

“The medicine is supposed to prevent the cancer from coming back and keep them from dying,” said Reyes, a neuroscience major.

Research has found that in patients diagnosed with early breast cancer, treatment reduced recurrence within a five-year timeframe by 40 percent and mortality by one-third.

But minority populations report poorer outcomes after being diagnosed, and even after being treated for breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, the disease is still the leading cause of cancer-related death among Latina women.

Reyes and Cantoral worked on two projects to improve Latina women’s breast cancer outcomes.

Data suggests that low medication adherence among non-white minorities could be one reason for the poorer outcomes, so the pair started asking questions for an initial study.

“What are some of the barriers to adherence? Why aren’t they taking their medication? What things help them take their medication?” Reyes said.

After screening study participants — recruited from the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Latina Association of Breast Cancer in Chicago and Rush University Medical Center — the students asked women open-ended questions in separate hour-long interviews and transcribed their answers.

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