Boston University School of Medicine
About the Webinar
This webinar addresses the relatively low performance of risk prediction models for breast cancer in Black women versus performance in other populations, and possible reasons for the observed disparity. Dr. Palmer also discusses methodological approaches, including the consideration of differential risk factors for specific molecular subtypes of breast cancer.
About Julie R. Palmer
Dr. Julie R. Palmer is the Karin Grunebaum Professor in Cancer Research at Boston University School of Medicine, Director of the Slone Epidemiology Center, and a Komen Scholar. She received her doctorate in epidemiology from Harvard University. Dr. Palmer’s research program focuses on the etiology of breast cancer, with an emphasis on African American women. She has been a leader of the Black Women’s Health Study since its inception in 1995. Dr. Palmer’s research has provided convincing evidence that breastfeeding reduces risk of hormone receptor negative breast cancer and that, in the absence of breastfeeding, higher parity is associated with an increased risk of receptor negative disease. Dr. Palmer has published over 375 peer-reviewed papers, including ones in leading journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. Since the start of her academic career, she has been continually funded as a principal investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Palmer received the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities award in 2017 in recognition of her work on elucidating reasons for racial disparities in cancer incidence.