the United States need to urgently expand research and improve the understanding of cancer in minority populations, according to a special report published Thursday by Cancer Panel of the President.
While minorities currently represent approximately one third of the U.S. population, they should become the collective majority by 2050, according to the report.
The Committee noted that "minority and other underserved populations are affected disproportionately by some cancers, are often diagnosed at later stages of the disease and often survival."
In addition, the incidence of cancer in minority populations is projected nearly double over the next 20 years.
"Most of what we know about cancer is based on studies of non-Hispanic whites, but towards the middle of the century, this group will be only 38% of the population, said Margaret l. Kripke, an Emeritus Professor of Immunology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston"Member of the Committee. "We need more data on cancer in minority populations so that we can begin to implement specific prevention measures."
The report recommends more research on the sociological factors that may explain disparities in mortality among minorities.
"There were many studies in recent years to try to understand genetic differences in the sensitivity of cancer-associated, but there are also cultural factors that can affect mortality due to cancer, said Kripke." In some cultures, people are so afraid of a diagnosis of cancer that they seek treatment until it is very late. ?
Current cancer screening guidelines should be assessed, the Committee has noted, "to determine their accuracy in the evaluation of the burden of disease in various populations".
"Standardized testing guidelines do work," said Kripke. "For example, breast cancer screening guidelines were relaxed so that women can begin to have mammograms later and can be projected less often, but we know that there is an early age for the onset of cancer of the breast in Latinoet populations therefore if you change the guidelines based on the". most people, these women will be left. ?
Another recommendation is that "cultural competence" become an integral part of the Faculty of medicine, as well as continuous training for all health care providers and administrative staff.
Dr. Otis w. Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, praised the report and said he "hit all the points of rights".
"The greatest thing we need to do is to get people access to care, the thing is to ensure that they receive good quality care, and then we must ensure that care is provided in a user-friendly environment where the patient feels welcome"said Brawley. ".
It noted "the first two are in fact much easier to make than the third,". "Many poor people, but especially poor black and Hispanic poor, suspicious of the medical system and think that the hospital not really wants to take care of them - they want just for their Bill and use them to teach their students in medicine.".
Kripke has recognized that many of the recommendations have spend more money at a time where the health care system is already financially stretched.
"For example, we know that the best way to provide information to cancer patients whose primary language is not English is through a medical translator, but how many hospitals can afford to do?" she said.
The Committee concluded that the disparities in research and cancer care will be finally eliminated only by addressing the social factors involved in bad health outcomes, such as poverty, substandard housing, lower educational status and lack of access to quality health care.
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