NEW YORK�More Black women die from breast cancer each year despite a lower overall incident rate, there is simply not enough data from clinical research with Black women to understand the cause of this discrepancy and develop solutions to the problem, experts say.

Physicians, public health officials and consumer advocacy groups gathered for the first time Sept. 11 to discuss the importance of increased Black participation in a clinical trial for breast cancer.

The symposium, sponsored by the Magic Johnson Foundation, the National Medical Association, Merrill Lynch/the August Group, the Breast Cancer Resource Committee, and Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals was the largest gathering to date of consumer, physician, corporate and government organizations discussing the urgent need of improved education, screening, prevention treatment and research in the Black community.

Symposium moderator Col. Doris Browne, MD, MPH, director of Medical Research and Development for the U.S. Army told The Final Call that "it is now critically important to increase the awareness and information to African Americans in all levels, in all communities. It is important that you do some of those screening things that are important for early detection, so that you can find the disease quickly and you can move into the arena�hopefully enabling you to be cured."

Zora Browne, national coordinator for the Breast Cancer Advisory Council, said "The Magic Johnson Foundation is taking a very important step in opening up discussions about how to include more African American Women in clinical trial research."

"We are here today to see what can be done to better educate our community," noted Earvin "Magic" Johnson during his opening remarks. "We need to get the information out to the community. That is what the Magic Johnson Foundation is all about ... That is what I am about," he added.

The foundation has raised some $15 million for charity. Eight million dollars has been raised solely for grants awarded to non-profit organizations and $7 million for other charities raised through partnerships and special events.

"I have been doing this for 19 years," says Ms. Brown, adding, it was extremely important, as you can see, that a lot of people have paid attention in just the past few months, that I have been doing this with Magic Johnson. We have made a lot of progress in the last 19 years, however, Magic Johnson�s name, when I make my phone calls�get my calls returned a lot faster."

The goal of the MJF is a three year national public education campaign under the auspices of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative (NBCAI) devoted to helping women in urban communities, especially women of color, obtain breast cancer education, screening and treatment services.

Dr. Robert J. DeWitty, Jr. associate professor of surgery at Howard University Hospital, has served as principle investigator and co-investigator on numerous research projects. "The issue of the research disparity is a two pronged problem," he said. "If we ourselves don�t initiate the process whereby we can be diagnosed; we can get cancer ... we can die from cancer. Black women need to know what breast cancer is and that it can be treated. To some extent, cancer research is something that is unknown.