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Reducing Cancer Disparities

Americans can modify lifestyles to reduce individual risk for cancer—tobacco use, physical activity, 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:

1. Improve early cancer detection through routine mammography, Papanicolaou (Pap) tests and colorectal cancer screening.



2. Implement effective community interventions to increase screening and modify risk behaviors.



3. 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.

Greatest Disparities in the Use of Cancer Screening Tests:
Uninsured, No Usual Source of Health Care, Recent Immigrants

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Source: 2000 National Health Interview Survey

Minority groups' access to cancer care and clinical trials needs to be expanded continuously 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.

Because fear of cancer, cost, and lack of physician referral are common barriers to cancer screening and other preventive services, health care providers play a critical role in increasing the use of preventive services. Physicians must address their patients' fears by describing how screening saves lives. Health care providers must recommend preventive services and communicate with their patients about low-cost or free cancer screening services like the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). 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.