Using the UWBCS to Assess Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Incidence & Survival
Principal Investigator: Oguzhan Alagoz, Ph.D. and Amy Trentham-Dietz, Ph.D
Institution: University of Wisconsin - Madison
Grant Number: 5R03CA130727-02
Awarded under CA-05-018
Currently a CISNET Affiliate Member
Description of Study: The University of Wisconsin Breast Cancer Simulation (UWBCS) was developed and validated by a multidisciplinary team with Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) funding and produces age- and stage-specific incidence and mortality rates that closely match those published by the SEER program for the US during 1975-2000. The UWBCS is a systems analytic, discrete-event simulation of individual women incorporating events for tumor onset, tumor discovery, breast cancer screening, breast cancer treatment, and death from either breast cancer or other women aged 20-100 years. We will enhance the UWBCS by incorporating race into the model. The simulation will then be applied to estimate the impact of cancer control interventions on breast cancer incidence, survival, and mortality rates of existing screening and treatment technologies separately for African-American and white women.
This analysis will help us address the widening disparity between African American and white women in breast cancer survival and mortality. Continuing enhancement and application of the UWBCS will address gaps in our understanding of breast cancer control measures that other approaches, such as randomized trials, can not. of this research to Public Health The proposed research will help us identify the differential impacts on breast cancer incidence and mortality of screening and treatment improvements for African American and white women in the US population between 1975 and 2000, which will be useful to all policy makers, research community, healthcare professionals and their organizations, information and advocacy organizations. The results of these changes may help policy makers and cancer community to take the steps to lower the gaps in survival and mortality between various races, which is very significant in improving public health.
