Turning a Survival Edge Into Interventions for Breast Cancer Treatment

This is part 2 of an interview with Scarlett Lin Gomez, PhD, MPH. Watch part 1.

While the survival advantage seen among Asian American women with breast cancer isn't yet ready to shape clinical practice guidelines, Scarlett Lin Gomez, PhD, MPH, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and co-leader of the Cancer Control Program at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, says there's still a lot practicing oncologists can take from it today.

Gomez emphasizes that the findings shouldn't lead clinicians to assume every Asian American patient will have better outcomes. Instead, she sees value in raising awareness of the heterogeneity within the data, such as the nativity-based differences her team observed, which could inform how clinicians think about individual patients. She points to the collaborative relationship between epidemiologists and clinicians as central to this research: clinical observations often generate hypotheses her team can test in the data, and findings from the data can, in turn, sharpen what clinicians watch for in practice.

One area she's especially interested in exploring further is the role of social networks and community support. Her team's prior work has found a consistent association between Asian American cancer patients living in ethnic enclaves and improved outcomes.