April promotes Cancer awareness in minority populations

Newswise — National Minority Cancer awareness Week is April 15-21 and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is taking this opportunity to provide information about cancer incidence for minority populations in the United States.

Cancer incidence and death rates for minority populations is a growing issue because minorities have lower overall survival rates for many cancers.

“It is essential that minorities participate in research studies because we need to learn more about biology, social issues and other factors to help us fully understand the unequal cancer burden in minority populations,” says Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D., director of the Center for Research on Minority Health at M. D. Anderson.

Below is the breakdown of how minority groups are affected by cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

African American Women:

• In past years, breast cancer death rates for white and African American women were approximately equal, but by 2000, African American women had a 32 percent higher death rate than white women.
• About 19,000 new breast cancer cases and 5,830 breast cancer deaths are estimated to occur in African American women in 2007.

African American Men:
• Approximately 63,000 African Americans are expected to die from cancer in 2007.
• Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both African American men and women.
• About 30,870 new cases of prostate cancer and 4,240 deaths are expected to occur among African American men in 2007.

Hispanic Women:

• Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among Hispanic women. In 2006, more than 1,700 Hispanic women died from the disease.
• Overall, slightly less than 1 in 3 Hispanic women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 3 will die from it.
• The death rate from cervical cancer is 50 percent higher among Hispanic women than in white women. In 2006, approximately 2,000 Hispanic women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and approximately 350 died from the disease.

Hispanic Men:

• More than 11,800 Hispanic men were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
• Overall, slightly less than 1 in 2 Hispanic men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 5 will die from it.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders:

• The incidence of liver cancer from 1998-2002 was nearly three times as high in Asian American Pacific Islander men than in white men.
• As a group, women who are Asian American and Pacific Islanders are more likely to die from breast cancer than any other type of cancer
• Cancers that disproportionately impact Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are liver and stomach cancer, two cancers for which there is no early detection or screening mechanisms.

Native Americans and Alaskan Natives

• Cervical cancer death rates are higher among Native Americans than among all racial and ethnic populations especially in the East and Northern Plains regions of the US.
• Native Americans have the lowest cancer survival rates among any racial group in the US.
• Cancer is the leading cause of death among American Indians and Alaska Natives over the age of 45.
• According to a report released by the Indian Health Service in 2000, cancer is the second leading cause of death among American Indians.
“Additional research must be fully conducted to explore the magnitude and causes of cancer disparities among minorities,” Jones said.
To reduce your risks, M. D. Anderson recommends following appropriate cancer screening guidelines.

For more information on the unequal burden of cancer facing these minority populations, visit http://www.mdanderson.org/cancerawareness or visit M. D. Anderson’s Center for Research on Minority Health.