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Last Reviewed:
June 5, 2007
Content Source:
Office of Minority Health & Health Disparities (OMHD) |
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Eliminate Disparities
in Cancer Screening & Management
| What is the Burden of Cancer in the United States? |
| Cancer is the second
leading cause of death in the United States, causing
more than 500,000 deaths each year.1
The chances of having cancer in a lifetime
are
45 percent for men2 and
41 percent for women.3 Almost
half of all people who get cancer will die.4 |
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| Examples of Important Disparities |
| Although deaths caused by breast cancer have decreased among
white women, African-American women continue to have higher
rates of mortality from breast and cervical cancer.5 The
disproportionate burden
may be because many African-American women have not received regular
mammograms or Papanicolaou
(Pap) tests or follow-up treatment.
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| Vietnamese women have an incidence rate of cervical cancer five
times higher than white women.6
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| Limited access to health care services and language and cultural
barriers are primary reasons for the low rates of screening and treatment
for other minority groups, such as Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska
Natives, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander women. |
| Men in African-American populations also have more cancers of the lung, prostate,
colon, and rectum than do white men.5
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| Overall, African Americans have more malignant tumors and are
less likely to survive cancer than the general population.5 |
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Promising Strategies |
| Modify lifestyles to reduce individual risk for cancer
-- tobacco
use, diet and nutrition -- and improve early detection. CDC and other
public health agencies, health care providers, and communities of all
racial and ethnic groups must become partners in a national effort to: |
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Improve early cancer detection through routine
mammography, Pap tests and
colorectal cancer screening; |
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Create additional public education campaigns;
and |
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Develop research projects that will encourage
minority groups to participate in clinical trials for cancer prevention to
ensure that significant differences between minority and ethnic groups are
identified. |
| Minority groups’ access to cancer care and clinical trials has been
expanded to ensure that people in these communities are provided the same
quality, access, and state-of-the-art technology that patients in major
care centers receive. |
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| What is the Health Care Provider’s Role to Help Reduce the Cancer
Burden? |
| Because fear, cost, and lack of physician referral
are three common barriers to cancer screening for women, health care
providers play a critical role in increasing cancer screening. |
| Physicians must address their patients’ fears by
describing how screening saves lives. |
| Health care providers must communicate
with their patients about low-cost or free cancer screening services like the
National Breast and Cervical
Cancer Cancer Early Detection Program. |
| Because many women in minority
populations have limited means or do not know how to access cancer treatment
specialists, physicians must act as trusted referral sources. |
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| What can Individuals do to Decrease Their Risk of Getting Cancer? |
| Although tobacco use is responsible for at least one-third of all cancer
deaths,7 smoking
cessation is only one way a person can choose to reduce the personal
burden of cancer. |
| Diet, weight control, and physical
activity can in time reduce cancer incidence by 30-40%.8
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| Early detection is the best opportunity
to reduce deaths; therefore, women at risk must make every effort to
receive mammograms and Pap smears on a regular basis so breast and
cervical cancer can be detected and treated. |
| And persons at high risk for colorectal
cancer should follow guidelines on periodic health evaluations. |
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| Ask your doctor about the following cancer screening tests: |
| Women |
Men |
| Breast self exam |
Colonoscopy |
| Colonoscopy |
Digital rectal exam (DRE) |
| Mammogram |
Prostate specific antigen (PSA) test |
| Pap test |
Testicular self exam |
| Pelvic exam |
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