The Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion at St. Joseph’s/Candler has earned a $100,000 grant to decrease breast cancer mortality rates in minority women.

The grant was awarded through the Georgia Access to Care, Treatment and Services (ACTS) Breast Cancer License Tag Grant Program. Georgia CORE – the Center for Oncology Research and Education administers the ACTS Grant on behalf of the Georgia State Office of Rural Health within the Department of Community Health.

“Minority and medically underserved women facing breast cancer can encounter barriers in treatment that may affect their survival,” said H.A. Zaren, Medical Director of the Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion. “This program will break through those barriers and set these women on a road to a long life. We are indebted to Georgia CORE and the Georgia Breast Cancer License Tag Program for helping the Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion fund this important program.” 

Minority women often face additional disparities including no health insurance, no usual source of health care, and low annual household incomes which impact their breast cancer outcomes.

In Chatham County, white women are more likely than black women to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.

This grant, part of a program called “Pathway to Survival: Breast Cancer Treatment for Minority Indigent Women,” will help women defray costs for treatment and treatment garments, help women with benign breast disease get a diagnosis and treatment and connect women with supportive cancer services like genetic counseling and palliative care.

During the past several years, organizations throughout the state have had the opportunity to compete for the ACTS Breast Cancer Grant, which is funded by the state’s breast cancer license tag program. Legislated by the Georgia General Assembly, $22 of every breast cancer awareness license tag purchased or renewed goes to the indigent care fund, which in turn pays for breast cancer education, screenings, and treatment for Georgians without insurance that are also below the poverty level.

“As long as Georgia drivers buy the license tag, the fund will continue to grow,” Angie Patterson, Georgia CORE vice president and lead administrator of the ACTS Grant. “With breast cancer being the second leading cause of cancer death among women in our state, we need more people to buy them so we can expand breast cancer treatments and early detection services to as many Georgians as possible.”

To find out how to purchase a breast cancer awareness license tag, please visit the Georgia Department of Revenue website or visit your local county tag office. For more information on this and other cancer care initiatives, as well as trials, treatments, oncologists and resources currently available throughout the state, please visit www.GeorgiaCancerInfo.org.