Susanna Fletcher Greer, Chief Scientific Officer of the V Foundation, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“ ‘The more I know, the more you know.” We are making breakthroughs in communities that have been ignored.
Next week The V Foundation community will gather at Home – Boo-Yah | The V Foundation for Cancer Researchin NY to carry forward the legacy of Stuart Scott and his fight to end cancer inequities.
One paper I keep coming back to is titled: “The more I know, the more you know” from V Foundation grantee Dr. Vida Henderson and colleagues at Fred Hutch.
The Henderson team asked a simple but urgent question: How do we talk about cancer clinical trials in ways that truly meet Black communities where they are?
Right now, Black Americans have the highest death rates from most cancers in the United States, yet in recent cancer clinical trials that led to new cancer medicines, only about three percent of participants were Black. That gap is not just a statistic. It means treatments are developed and tested without enough input from the very people who carry the greatest cancer burden.
Instead of assuming that traditional academic outreach would work, the Henderson team built a different path. They partnered with Black cancer survivors, caregivers, and community members across the country.
They listened deeply to experiences of racism and medical mistrust and did not try to talk around them.
They worked with marketing experts to create a short film called FOR US that features Black actors, a Black health care professional, and real world conversations about whether to join a clinical trial.
They tested different versions of the video with focus groups and refined the script until people said it felt authentic, clear, and shareable.
The result is a set of short public service videos that do three important things:
- Explain what a cancer clinical trial is in plain language
- Acknowledge the history and the mistrust honestly
- Offer trustworthy links and next steps so that people can make informed decisions for themselves and their families
Stuart Scott asked all of us to care about who is left out of cancer research, and to make sure that breakthroughs reach communities that have historically been ignored. Work like this is one way that vision becomes real. It is not a new drug in a lab. It is a new way of communicating respect, trust, and choice.
This is exactly the kind of equity focused researchthat the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund at the V Foundation exists to champion supporting both underrepresented scientists and work that addresses disparities in real communities.
As we prepare for Boo Yah, I am thinking about every person who has ever wondered whether a clinical trial was really for them and every family member trying to help them decide.
If you choose to support the V Foundation and the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund this season, you are helping to:
Create research that reflects the diversity of the patients we serve, Build communication tools that honor culture, history, and autonomy, and critically.
Move us closer to a future where cancer outcomes are not predicted by race or zip code.
The more we know, the better we can do for everyone facing cancer.
Read this impactful paper.”
More posts from Susanna Fletcher Greer.