Science Fair Proposal* Revised

1. What is your topic?
My topic is Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

2.What is the driving problem behind your experiment and the quote by an expert to support the problem? (Expert citation must be in MLA format.)
The driving force behind my experiment is that through the research that I have collected, I have noticed that based on race you are more susceptible to a type of head and neck cancer than your other counterparts. For example, the book Cancer in Minorities by Lovell A. Jones, illustrates the that the black race is more susceptible to a  poorer prognosis for head and neck cancers then whites (non-Hispanic) or Hispanics. "Since 1950, the age-adjusted mortality rate per 100.000 population for buccal cavity and pharyngeal cancers has decreased from 6.6 to 4.7 for white males while increasing from 4.9 to 10.2 for black males." Contributing factors that led to a poor prognosis are tobacco usage, alcohol consumption,  and low socioeconomic status. "The study population included 103 cancer patients (38 women and 65 men), and 91 controls (39 women and 52 men). Individuals living in the most deprived areas (OR, 4.66; 95% CI, 1.79– 12.18) and those who were unemployed (OR, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.21– 4.26) had a significantly higher risk of cancer than people who had high levels of educational attainment (OR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.05–0.58)."   Evidence-Based Dentistry 11, 57-58 (2010) | doi:10.1038/sj.ebd.6400726

3.What is your hypothesis? (Must be in If-Then form.)

• If a minority race (black, Hispanic, Asian, etc) has a higher prevalence of smoking and alcohol usage, then they are most likely to develop head and neck cancer.
• If a patient has a low socioeconomic status and is a minority race, then they are most likely to die from head and neck cancer head and neck cancer.*

* chosen hypothesis

4.Write a paragraph summary of how you will perform the experiment. Include the tools you plan on using.

I will perform the experiment by studying research and data that I get from various legitimate sites. For example, one piece of research that I found was by a journal titled "Evidence-based Dentistry", which examined the socioeconomic status of  103 patients who had malignant cancers of the oral cavity, including the oropharynx, hypopharynx, or the larynx.  I will also be going to Kaiser Permanente to ask the doctors at the Head and Neck Surgery Department if they have any information about the topic at hand. The tools that I will be using are graphs and raw data that I collect from the various websites that I will be examining. I will also call the Cancer Information Service to see if they can supply me with data. I will be using Excel or statistical tools (proportional hazards model) so I can make my data about the correlation of head and neck cancer and socioeconomic status.

5. Select one of the project categories  for your experiment:
Animal Biology & Physiology