For her work leading innovative research into racial disparities in breast cancer care, Penn Medicine surgical resident and PC3I Innovation Fellow Sara Ginzberg, MD, recently received a Clinical Scholar Award from the prestigious San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

“I was very pleased and humbled to receive this award on behalf of our amazing Penn Medicine team for our work on the use of preoperative breast MRI,” Ginzberg said. “I hope these study findings continue to stimulate discussion and, more importantly, advance equity in breast cancer care, both at Penn Medicine and beyond.”

In recent years oncologists have increasingly turned to MRI exams prior to breast cancer surgery as a way of more accurately assessing the state of the disease in the body. However, the study results from Ginzberg and her colleagues found that Black patients were less likely than their White counterparts to receive a breast MRI exam before surgery—a difference that could ultimately mean worse care outcomes for Black patients down the road. In 2022 only 10 researchers received Clinical Scholar Awards, which were created to support deserving early-career researchers who attend and present their findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which is widely regarded as one of the most prominent annual events in the breast cancer research community.