New Spanish Website Offers Cancer Info, Resources



The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has launched a new website with increased access to resources and materials in Spanish. Free education materials in English and Spanish can be read and downloaded or ordered from the website. This includes the easy-to-read, bilingual resource called, Knowing All Your Treatment Options/Conozca todas sus opciones de tratamiento. This booklet guides patients to discuss all treatment options with their doctors and explains clinical trials and informed consent in basic language. Also on the website is information about financial programs, links to LLS’ new and archived telephone/web education programs, LLS national and chapter support services and printable question guides about treatment and clinical trials that patients can take with them to ...

Read More

New Spanish-Language Guides Inform Decisions about Heart Disease, Other Illnesses



A free, easy-to-read pamphlet that compares drugs for preventing heart attacks or strokes in people with stable coronary heart disease is one of six new Spanish-language publications from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that help patients compare treatments for common illnesses. The publication, Guía para pacientes que están en tratamiento de una cardiopatía coronaria estable (“ACE Inhibitors” and “ARBs” to Protect Your Heart?—A Guide for Patients Being Treated for Stable Coronary Heart Disease), summarizes the benefits and risks of medications called ACE Inhibitors (angiotensin-converting enzyme) and ARBs (angiotensin II receptor blockers). These medications help reduce blood pressure in patients who often take other heart-related medications ...

Read More

VIDEO: Community Members, Researchers Team to Tackle Minority Health Problems



Dr. Meredith Minkler, a cancer researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke about the impact of "community-based participatory research (CBPR)" on May 5, 2011, at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) in San Antonio as part of the SALSI/CTRC Health Disparities Lecture Series. CBPR is a technique that brings community members onto academic health research teams as equal partners in a research study or intervention. Community members help design programs that best address their specific community's health problems and needs. Watch video of Dr. Minkler's talk about CBPR here. The SALSI/CTRC Health Disparities Lecture Series, sponsored by the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) and the CTRC, brings some of the top U.S. health disparities experts to San ...

Read More

VIDEO: The Obesity Epidemic



Watch a new video from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that explains the factors contributing to the obesity epidemic and showcases several community initiatives taking place to prevent and reduce obesity. Obesity is a national epidemic and a major contributor to some of the leading causes of death in the U.S., including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. Latinos have some of the highest rates of overweight and obesity, and suffer a larger burden of diabetes. The CDC urges communitywide changes that strongly support healthy eating and active ...

Read More

San Antonio Researcher, YMCA Partner to Encourage Healthy Living, Cancer Prevention



The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recently awarded $265,000 to a researcher from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio who is working with the YMCA of Greater San Antonio to encourage healthy living and cancer prevention. Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina, professor in the Health Science Center’s Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR), is co-directing “Y Living,” a lifestyle program for cancer prevention and risk reduction. “This collaborative project uses a community-based, family-focused approach. We’ll work with families to promote physical activity, a balanced diet and increased awareness of the impact of a healthy lifestyle on cancer risk reduction,” Dr. Parra-Medina said. “We’ll provide health education, ...

Read More

VIDEO: Group Strives to Help Diabetics in Hispanic Town



El Paso, Texas, which is considered among the nation's least healthy cities, struggles with high rates of obesity and diabetes, Borderzine reports. More than 85,000 residents in El Paso, which is 82% Hispanic, have diabetes. That's why the El Paso Diabetes Association aims to eliminate diabetes and its complications through empowerment, promotion, detection and access. The agency organizes community events to get people more involved with the organization, raise awareness, promote their services and help people control the disease. For example, a Diabetes Walk/Run helps raise money for the organization every year. To learn more, watch this ...

Read More

Lecture on 8/11/11: “What Every Latino Man & Woman Should Know About Cancer”



Hispanics, who make up 60 percent of Bexar County’s population and almost 40 percent of Texas’, face special cancer risks. Minimizing those risks is the subject of a free public lecture to be held at 6 p.m. CST Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011, on the fourth floor of the Grossman Building at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7979 Wurzbach Road. "In the Hispanic population, we tend to put off prevention because we don't think it's going to happen to us," said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center. "And cancer's one of those things we don't like to talk about." For instance, Dr. Ramirez said, about 40 percent of Hispanic women do not have yearly ...

Read More

Profile in Health/Prevention: Dr. Amelie Ramirez


Amelie Ramirez

UT Health Science Center at San Antonio researcher Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez "has impacted the health and lives of thousands of South Texans" through her 30 years of health education, promotion and research in and with Latino communities, according to a health/prevention profile article in the San Antonio Business Journal. Dr. Ramirez currently targets Latino health issues as director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center. The IHPR is the research team behind national research networks on Latino cancer (Redes En Acción) and Latino child obesity (Salud America!). Dr. Ramirez, in the article, says prevention is the key to improving health: “We’re not just doing research for the purpose of doing research,” says Ramirez. “We are doing ...

Read More

Putting a Spotlight on Cancer Health Disparities



This summer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) is focusing attention on the topic of cancer health disparities. The NCI works to reduce the unequal burden of cancer incidence and mortality in our society by supporting research to identify and understand the factors that contribute to disparities. NCI also funds studies to develop and disseminate culturally appropriate interventions. Go here for details on disparities and related research, support, statistics, training opportunities and ...

Read More