April is National Minority Cancer Awareness Month: Cancer Discriminates

April is National Minority Cancer Awareness Month: Cancer Discriminates

National Minority Cancer Awareness Month: In Search For Equity

Health equity means everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer. Many factors influence a person's ability to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer. Structural and social inequities, such as racism, classism, ableism, etc. shape the factors that affect a person’s health, including health-related behaviors and non-medical social and physical environmental factors (e.g., access to healthy and affordable food, transportation, and the financial means to pay for medications, housing, utilities, and other services).

The ubiquity of cancer, along with survival and death rates, are discussed at length at a national and international level. However, when talking about the rates of cancer in America, it is rarely broken down into distinct population groups. Though cancer affects all of these groups, there seem to be larger cancer differences across minority groups in the United States.

Cancer Disparities In The US

Cancer disparities are differences in cancer measures such as the number of new cases, existing cases, deaths, morbidities, and screening rates. As a group, African-Americans have the highest cancer mortality rate and shortest survival of any racial/ethnic group in America.

In fact, African American cancer-related deaths make up over 12% of the national cancer-related deaths. Lung cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer account for the majority of these deaths. Although there are associations in lung cancer deaths across all racial/ethnic groups, prostate cancer, and breast cancer include huge discrepancies between African Americans and Caucasians.

Healthcare Insurance And Services For All

Notwithstanding innovation and advancements in cancer diagnosis, prevention, and treatments, cancer care disparities continue in every area of care, from cancer screening to survivorship. For example:

• Black women have a 40% higher breast cancer death rate than white women, even though their diagnoses rates are somewhat lower.

• Nearly 22% of American Indian and Alaska Natives do not own health insurance, compared to less than 8% of white individuals.

• Black men encounter higher rates of new cases and death than white men in certain cancers such as prostate cancer and kidney cancer.

• Oncology clinical cases continue to be disproportionately white (80%) and male (60%).

• Cervical cancer cases and death rates are highest among non-Hispanic Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hispanic women.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed increased risks and burdens on cancer patients and survivors and has illuminated existing disparities in our healthcare system. Health disparities can only meaningfully be addressed when all individuals have access to and can afford healthcare insurance and services.

Hispanics Are More Likely To Be Diagnosed With Cancer Compared To Non-Hispanic Whites

Hispanics are the most populous ethnic minority group in the country with 57 million people. Cancer is now the leading cause of death among US Hispanic men and women. Approximately 30% will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime. Compared to non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of disease and experience poor quality of life following a cancer diagnosis. As a result, they also experience disparities in cancer symptom severity and supervision.

A meta-analysis on psychological morbidity among US ethnic minority groups, many of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer, found that Hispanics experienced significantly greater distress, worse social well-being, and worse overall quality of life compared to other ethnic minority groups.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer amongst men, following skin cancer. Black men, however, are twice as likely as Caucasian men to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Black women are equally as likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer as white women, though black women are 40% more likely to die as a result of the disease.

While these disparities are shocking, there are many more cancer disparities amongst minorities in the United States. Hispanic men and women, for example, are twice as likely to be diagnosed with and die from liver cancer while Native Americans/Alaskan Natives are more likely to die from kidney cancer than any other group.

Dismantling The Disparities

As National Minorities Health Month aims to bring awareness to health gaps in minority communities, many are left wondering how to make a difference in such a deeply rooted issue. 

Many organizations aim to dismantle the disparities, leaving individuals with perhaps the most important job in the meantime. Knowing, and sharing, the appropriate cancer screening guidelines and tools is an easy way to make a huge difference. Cancer is not equal, but conversations today can pave the way to closing the gap.