MEDIA
ADVISORY
WHAT: Emory
University's Great Teacher Lecture Series "Observations in Cancer Epidemiology
and Prevention"
WHO: Otis Brawley, MD, Associate
Director for Cancer Control at Winship Cancer Institute, Professor of
Medicine and Oncology at the Emory School of Medicine, Professor of
Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health, Director of the Georgia
Cancer Coalition Center of Excellence at Grady.
WHEN: Thursday, September
12, 2002, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Emory's Miller-Ward
Alumni House, located at 815 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta
This lecture is free and
open to the public. Call 404-727-5686 for more information.
Otis Brawley, MD, one of
the country's leading experts in cancer prevention and a preeminent
scholar in research in health disparities, will give the next Emory
University Great Teachers Lecture at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, September
12. Held in Emory's Miller Ward Alumni House at 815 Houston Mill Road,
the lecture is free and open to the public.
In his lecture, "Observations
in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention," Dr. Brawley will look at cancer
incidence and mortality in different populations in the United States
and in Georgia. He will discuss health disparities among various populations,
the reasons for these disparities, and what solutions are available
to us. He will also look at what is being done at Emory to alleviate
the disparities in health care.
Dr. Brawley points out that
the numbers are very clear. Since the early 1980s, African Americans
have been dying of breast, prostate, and other cancers in greater numbers
than white Americans. Whereas in 1980, black and white women with breast
cancer faced similar death rates, by 1990 a black woman's risk of dying
of breast cancer was 16 percent greater than a white woman's. By 1995,
that percentage difference had grown to a staggering 29 percent.
"Race is not a factor in
outcomes, in terms of genetics," says Dr. Brawley. "The genetics of
black folks did not change in the past 25 years. I believe that a big
part of the reason these disparities exist is in the quality of care
received."
Dr. Brawley cites a number
of studies—from large healthcare systems, the Department of Defense,
and health maintenance organizations—demonstratingthat equal care yields
equal treatment among equal patients. Race, he argues, may mask the
real culprits, including poverty, diet, tobacco and alcohol use, and
inadequate health care.
Dr. Brawley is a board-certified
internist and oncologist trained at the University of Chicago's Pritzker
School of Medicine, Case Western, and the National Cancer Institute
(NCI). Dr. Brawley came to the Winship Cancer Institute from the NCI,
where he was assistant director for special populations research. In
addition to his leadership at the Grady Center of Excellence, Dr. Brawley
holds appointments as professor of medicine in Emory's School of Medicine
and of epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health.
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