Understanding the experiences of black women taking hormone therapy
Research area: Quality of life
Dr Lyndsay Hughes and her PhD student want to better understand the experiences of black women who are taking hormone therapy. Hormone therapy can come with challenging side effects and needs to be taken for a long time. But it’s an important part of treatment. So, this project aims to help black women take their medication.
In this section
What's the challenge?
Women from black African and Caribbean backgrounds are less likely than white women to develop breast cancer. But, when they do, their survival rates are lower.
Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancers. And to get breast cancers that are more difficult to treat, like triple negative breast cancer. But these reasons aren’t enough to explain why they’re more likely to die from the disease. So, it’s important we understand why and find ways to close this gap.
By focusing specifically on the experiences of black women, we want to shed light on an often-overlooked group in breast cancer. So we can build knowledge and skills to better support their individual needs. And that includes developing educational materials for healthcare professionals and support groups.
Dr Lyndsay Hughes
King’s College London
What's the science behind the project?
We want to work out if black women might find it harder to keep taking long-term treatments. If they do, this could be a reason why black women are more likely to die from breast cancer.
Many women find it difficult to take hormone therapy. It can come with challenging side effects. And if you have oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, you might need to take hormone therapy for 10 years or more.
We know that around 40% of people forget it, and around 10% deliberately miss, skip, or change doses. But this percentage tends to be higher in black women. So Dr Lyndsay Hughes, from King’s College London, wants to better understand their experiences of taking hormone therapy.
Lyndsay and her PhD student want to know when black women take their medication and how weekends, holidays and other events may impact this. They’re also looking to understand how their culture influences their experiences and expectations of hormone therapy.
This insight will help our researchers to understand why black women may find it harder to take hormone therapy. And it’ll help them produce educational materials for healthcare professionals, patients and support groups, so they can tailor their support for black women.
What difference will this project make?
This research will help us better understand the experiences of black women taking hormone therapy. And it’ll increase awareness of their specific needs, and promote inclusive support for black women taking these medications.
How many people could this project help?
Between 2013 and 2018, around 2% of breast cancer cases in women in England were in black women. That’s around 920 women each year in England.
