Personal Statement
My professional activities and research interests are centered around breast cancer epidemiology, including biomarkers of increased incidence risk, screening, and survival disparities in Hispanic women. We completed an R01 study of factors contributing to the 1.7-fold overall difference in breast cancer survival between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women in New Mexico, including treatment, inherited genetic variants, and tumor and normal breast tissue protein expression.
SEER-Medicare data are being analyzed to confirm and extend findings in this study. In a nested case-control study within a cohort of 15,000 women with benign breast biopsies in NM, I am determining the subsequent risk of breast cancer among women whose benign tissue express up to 20 biomarkers. I am also examining the natural history of untreated breast cancer in SEER-Medicare, with implications for overdiagnosis.