October 3, 2025 • 10 mins
We’re joined by Dr. Heather K. Beasley, a leading cancer researcher and MAGEC Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. As Chair of the AACR Associate Member Council, Dr. Beasley is advancing research on cancer disparities, particularly in underserved communities. • AACR – www.aacr.org
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrel. Lupus affects women of
color in larger numbers than the general population. We'll tell
you more about that and the upcoming Lupasloop Walk. The
African American Chamber of Commerce is having a major gathering
the perfect place for Black businesses to network, and will
share an excerpt from the I Pledge events sponsored by
(00:21):
Women Against Abuse. But first today, we're joined by doctor
Heather K. Beasley, a dedicated scientist and advocate in the
fight against cancer. Doctor Beasley is a Molecular and Genetic
Epidemiology of Cancer Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She
also serves as chair of the AACR Associate Member Council
(00:42):
and is an active member of Minorities in Cancer Research
and Women in Cancer Research, two critical groups within the
American Association for Cancer Research. Her work is focused on
uncovering the genetic and environmental causes of cancer, especially within
underrepresented community. We're here to talk about breast cancer and
(01:03):
black women and women of color. Thank you so much
for joining us here today. First of all, can you
tell us about your journey into cancer research and why
you chose to focus on molecular and genetic epidemiology.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yes, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure and hearing all those things you said
about me, I'm like, who is this person you're speaking about?
But you know what, this is a new field that
I've actually transferred into. So how it got into cancer
research was really in grad school. I've always loved understanding
cancer because it's so many different moving pieces in the puzzle.
(01:37):
With a lot of other diseases, we know how it forms,
we know how it progresses, we know treatment outcomes, but
unfortunately with cancer, because there's so many different parts that
go into how cancer forms and how cancer moves, how
cancer develops into tumors, tumors that actually end up moving
to other parts of the body, and really really gotten
my scientists parts of my brain really excited. I'm so
(01:59):
in grad school when I was first introduced to cancer research,
and then I really wanted to understand why it disproportionately
affected different communities, which is why I got into health
disparity research. And so that's kind of the beginning of
the journey for getting into that research. Now the whole
magic that you talked about, the molecular and epidemiology of cancer.
(02:20):
That's a new problem where I've actually gone from basic science,
So basic science meaning I'm sitting at a bench in
a white lab coat, pipetting things and hoping things will happen,
and I moved over to the clinical side of cancer
research where I'm working only with patient tumor samples. And
so that program allows me to get a lot more
hands on clinical research so that I can affect new treatments,
(02:43):
new therapeutics that will be helpful for patients as we
move forward.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, the key question that we'd like to talk about today,
what are some of the key disparities in breast cancer
outcomes for black women in particular, and how is your
research helping address those gaps.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yes, there's quite a few disparities that exist. So I
particularly work in breast cancer research, and so what we
know about the particular molecular subtype of breast cancer that
I study, It's known as triple negative breast cancer. Now
it's defined at triple negative because scientists like to make
it very simple. It's just negative. Her three main receptors
(03:18):
that would drive the cancer, estrogen, progesterone in her too,
And because triple negative breast cancer doesn't have these receptors
on the two ar itself, you can't give it the
same types of drugs that would stop other types of
breast cancer. So one molecular subtype, as I mentioned TNBC
for short, it disproportionately affects black and Latina women. And
because of that, we're looking at what are some of
(03:41):
the biological differences between black and brown women and comparison
to white women that develop triple negative breast cancer, and
so how my research particularly affects those as we are
doing a deep dive into all the genetics. So is
there a biological difference between these groups of women, and
how can we stop some of these cancer progressing once
(04:03):
the patients are diagnosed. And so that's particularly where my
research comes in as we're understanding the genetic background of
these patients that makes it different. We're also evaluating their
treatment outcomes and looking at patient history, so did their parents,
did their grandparents, did aunts have breast cancer? And how
(04:23):
we can look at hereditarian other genetic markers as to
better help us understand how a patient would develop breast cancer,
especially triple negative breast cancer and can we better make
therapeutics that would help there are limited treatments for this
particular type of breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Doctor Beasley, we often talk about that disparity, and I'm
so fascinated that you're looking into some of the genetic
elements to the disproportionate impact of breast cancer on black women.
But also the other part of that conversation has to
do with barities in healthcare and institutional racism that has
(05:05):
had an impact on women of color throughout these many,
many decades. I wonder if we can talk a bit
about the other external aspects that impact the survivability for
women of color and when it comes to breast cancer.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Absolutely, you bring up an excellent point. There are so
many more factors that go beyond the biological understanding that
we have of how breast cancer forms and how breast
cancer progresses. Before that patient even gets to their mamber
gram and gives a suspicious finding that net later has
to be followed up by the pathologists, this woman is
exposed to environmental factors and other factors, as you mentioned,
(05:44):
external factors that also play a key role in how
breast cancer is diagnosed. Now it is not new to
anyone to know that there are systemic barriers or systematic
barriers that exist for women of color. There have been
lots of studies that surveyed women that live in impoverished neighborhoods,
women that live in affluenced neighborhoods, and sometimes most of
(06:07):
the time, the treatment outcomes are the same between them.
Now that's different when we compare those against women that
are not African, American or Latina, and so as we
look at that, that helps us understand that breast cancer
there are so many other factors that weigh in on
how patients are treated. Could it be that these patients
are diagnosed later. I currently am working on a study
(06:30):
that looks at patients that are diagnosed early, so that
we can kind of take out one of those variables,
which is, of course, these influences that come from maybe
the perspective pathologists or oncologists didn't take the patient's concern
into account, and that talks about some of the systemic
racism that you talked about. We're looking into how those
(06:53):
factors do play a very integral role in how we
understand breast cancer. As you mentioned, those are known factors
that absolutely can play a major role. We actually AACR
has the upcoming Health Disparities Conference that happens every single year,
and the keynote speaker this year is doctor Robert When
and he's given several talks about this in the past,
(07:16):
and he talks about how your zip code directly influences
how you're treated when it comes to cancer treatment, and
so that is something that definitely shouldn't be in the
equation when we're thinking about how to treat patients, but
we have undoubtedly shown that it does make a major
difference in treatment outcomes. And so just to bring that
(07:39):
to play, the AACR will have a talk about that,
and I believe it's in September. It's in Baltimore this year,
but that will be addressed yet again some of those
pieces that been into health equity when it comes to
cancer diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And finally, what steps can our listeners take right now
to help protect their health or support someone navigating a
breast can diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's fantastic questions. So there's a lot of things. The
main thing is making sure we know our bodies and
know our own health. It's important too, if you have
the ability to ask your parents, your mother and your
father's side if breast cancer runs in the family, and
also these self breast exams are quite important. We have
(08:22):
known that early detection is going to be key for
treatment outcome, so knowing your risk is important by knowing
your family history, but also doing those self breast exams
are going to be incredibly important, and women over forty
it is recommended that you do get those yearly mammograms.
We know that black women biologically have what is known
(08:43):
as dense breasts, which means that these mammograms are not
sometimes as easily able to detect breast cancer. So it's
quite important to bring these conversations up with your primary
care physician and making sure that we just advocate for
ourselves the doctor and get all the attention that we
need to make sure that we feel comfortable with everything
that's said at the doctor.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
If you want any information about breast cancer or any
kinds of cancers, the AACR has an amazing website that
has information on every single type of cancer that you
could think of, and also support an information that can
help individuals through their cancer journey. I'd like to thank
you so much for joining us today, Doctor Heather Beasley
(09:26):
scientist and advocate in the fight against cancer, a Molecular
and Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
also serving as chair of the AACR Associate Member Council,
an active member of Minorities in Cancer Research and Women
in Cancer Research, two critical groups inside of the American
(09:46):
Association for Cancer Research. We thank you for what you're
doing and we wish you luck in finding some of
the solutions to the cancers that are disproportionately impacting women
of color. Thank you so much much, Thank you so much.
We'll have more insight after these messages.
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrel. Lupus affects women of
color in larger numbers than the general population. We'll tell
you more about that and the upcoming Lupasloop Walk. The
African American Chamber of Commerce is having a major gathering
the perfect place for Black businesses to network, and will
share an excerpt from the I Pledge events sponsored by
(00:21):
Women Against Abuse. But first today, we're joined by doctor
Heather K. Beasley, a dedicated scientist and advocate in the
fight against cancer. Doctor Beasley is a Molecular and Genetic
Epidemiology of Cancer Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She
also serves as chair of the AACR Associate Member Council
(00:42):
and is an active member of Minorities in Cancer Research
and Women in Cancer Research, two critical groups within the
American Association for Cancer Research. Her work is focused on
uncovering the genetic and environmental causes of cancer, especially within
underrepresented community. We're here to talk about breast cancer and
(01:03):
black women and women of color. Thank you so much
for joining us here today. First of all, can you
tell us about your journey into cancer research and why
you chose to focus on molecular and genetic epidemiology.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yes, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
It's a pleasure and hearing all those things you said
about me, I'm like, who is this person you're speaking about?
But you know what, this is a new field that
I've actually transferred into. So how it got into cancer
research was really in grad school. I've always loved understanding
cancer because it's so many different moving pieces in the puzzle.
(01:37):
With a lot of other diseases, we know how it forms,
we know how it progresses, we know treatment outcomes, but
unfortunately with cancer, because there's so many different parts that
go into how cancer forms and how cancer moves, how
cancer develops into tumors, tumors that actually end up moving
to other parts of the body, and really really gotten
my scientists parts of my brain really excited. I'm so
(01:59):
in grad school when I was first introduced to cancer research,
and then I really wanted to understand why it disproportionately
affected different communities, which is why I got into health
disparity research. And so that's kind of the beginning of
the journey for getting into that research. Now the whole
magic that you talked about, the molecular and epidemiology of cancer.
(02:20):
That's a new problem where I've actually gone from basic science,
So basic science meaning I'm sitting at a bench in
a white lab coat, pipetting things and hoping things will happen,
and I moved over to the clinical side of cancer
research where I'm working only with patient tumor samples. And
so that program allows me to get a lot more
hands on clinical research so that I can affect new treatments,
(02:43):
new therapeutics that will be helpful for patients as we
move forward.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, the key question that we'd like to talk about today,
what are some of the key disparities in breast cancer
outcomes for black women in particular, and how is your
research helping address those gaps.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yes, there's quite a few disparities that exist. So I
particularly work in breast cancer research, and so what we
know about the particular molecular subtype of breast cancer that
I study, It's known as triple negative breast cancer. Now
it's defined at triple negative because scientists like to make
it very simple. It's just negative. Her three main receptors
(03:18):
that would drive the cancer, estrogen, progesterone in her too,
And because triple negative breast cancer doesn't have these receptors
on the two ar itself, you can't give it the
same types of drugs that would stop other types of
breast cancer. So one molecular subtype, as I mentioned TNBC
for short, it disproportionately affects black and Latina women. And
because of that, we're looking at what are some of
(03:41):
the biological differences between black and brown women and comparison
to white women that develop triple negative breast cancer, and
so how my research particularly affects those as we are
doing a deep dive into all the genetics. So is
there a biological difference between these groups of women, and
how can we stop some of these cancer progressing once
(04:03):
the patients are diagnosed. And so that's particularly where my
research comes in as we're understanding the genetic background of
these patients that makes it different. We're also evaluating their
treatment outcomes and looking at patient history, so did their parents,
did their grandparents, did aunts have breast cancer? And how
(04:23):
we can look at hereditarian other genetic markers as to
better help us understand how a patient would develop breast cancer,
especially triple negative breast cancer and can we better make
therapeutics that would help there are limited treatments for this
particular type of breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Doctor Beasley, we often talk about that disparity, and I'm
so fascinated that you're looking into some of the genetic
elements to the disproportionate impact of breast cancer on black women.
But also the other part of that conversation has to
do with barities in healthcare and institutional racism that has
(05:05):
had an impact on women of color throughout these many,
many decades. I wonder if we can talk a bit
about the other external aspects that impact the survivability for
women of color and when it comes to breast cancer.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Absolutely, you bring up an excellent point. There are so
many more factors that go beyond the biological understanding that
we have of how breast cancer forms and how breast
cancer progresses. Before that patient even gets to their mamber
gram and gives a suspicious finding that net later has
to be followed up by the pathologists, this woman is
exposed to environmental factors and other factors, as you mentioned,
(05:44):
external factors that also play a key role in how
breast cancer is diagnosed. Now it is not new to
anyone to know that there are systemic barriers or systematic
barriers that exist for women of color. There have been
lots of studies that surveyed women that live in impoverished neighborhoods,
women that live in affluenced neighborhoods, and sometimes most of
(06:07):
the time, the treatment outcomes are the same between them.
Now that's different when we compare those against women that
are not African, American or Latina, and so as we
look at that, that helps us understand that breast cancer
there are so many other factors that weigh in on
how patients are treated. Could it be that these patients
are diagnosed later. I currently am working on a study
(06:30):
that looks at patients that are diagnosed early, so that
we can kind of take out one of those variables,
which is, of course, these influences that come from maybe
the perspective pathologists or oncologists didn't take the patient's concern
into account, and that talks about some of the systemic
racism that you talked about. We're looking into how those
(06:53):
factors do play a very integral role in how we
understand breast cancer. As you mentioned, those are known factors
that absolutely can play a major role. We actually AACR
has the upcoming Health Disparities Conference that happens every single year,
and the keynote speaker this year is doctor Robert When
and he's given several talks about this in the past,
(07:16):
and he talks about how your zip code directly influences
how you're treated when it comes to cancer treatment, and
so that is something that definitely shouldn't be in the
equation when we're thinking about how to treat patients, but
we have undoubtedly shown that it does make a major
difference in treatment outcomes. And so just to bring that
(07:39):
to play, the AACR will have a talk about that,
and I believe it's in September. It's in Baltimore this year,
but that will be addressed yet again some of those
pieces that been into health equity when it comes to
cancer diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And finally, what steps can our listeners take right now
to help protect their health or support someone navigating a
breast can diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's fantastic questions. So there's a lot of things. The
main thing is making sure we know our bodies and
know our own health. It's important too, if you have
the ability to ask your parents, your mother and your
father's side if breast cancer runs in the family, and
also these self breast exams are quite important. We have
(08:22):
known that early detection is going to be key for
treatment outcome, so knowing your risk is important by knowing
your family history, but also doing those self breast exams
are going to be incredibly important, and women over forty
it is recommended that you do get those yearly mammograms.
We know that black women biologically have what is known
(08:43):
as dense breasts, which means that these mammograms are not
sometimes as easily able to detect breast cancer. So it's
quite important to bring these conversations up with your primary
care physician and making sure that we just advocate for
ourselves the doctor and get all the attention that we
need to make sure that we feel comfortable with everything
that's said at the doctor.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
If you want any information about breast cancer or any
kinds of cancers, the AACR has an amazing website that
has information on every single type of cancer that you
could think of, and also support an information that can
help individuals through their cancer journey. I'd like to thank
you so much for joining us today, Doctor Heather Beasley
(09:26):
scientist and advocate in the fight against cancer, a Molecular
and Genetic Epidemiology of Cancer Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
also serving as chair of the AACR Associate Member Council,
an active member of Minorities in Cancer Research and Women
in Cancer Research, two critical groups inside of the American
(09:46):
Association for Cancer Research. We thank you for what you're
doing and we wish you luck in finding some of
the solutions to the cancers that are disproportionately impacting women
of color. Thank you so much much, Thank you so much.
We'll have more insight after these messages.
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