Latinas, even if you've heard it before, please listen: Cancer screening can save your life. To see why, watch our new dramatic PSA where a Latino family with a history of breast cancer discusses the importance of getting a mammogram that can detect breast cancer early, when it's most treatable: Watch in Spanish here. Please leave a comment on how you liked the PSA. For cancer info, call ...
Read MoreHere's a collection of some of the newest information and resources on Latino cancer: Spanish-Language Health Resource On its Web site, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) offers an Información en español section and a variety of consumer materials and other health tools in Spanish on topics such as quality of care, surgery, diseases, quitting smoking, and prescriptions. Bilingual Consumer Health Information Numerous agencies, organizations, associations, and book and video distributors provide consumer health information in Spanish. The Web site of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine offers a sampling of sources of bilingual information. The list contains resources originating from the U.S. Hispanic Demographic Fact Sheets There are differences across the ...
Read MoreBeing diagnosed with breast cancer is automatically a death sentence. If I have breast surgery, the cancer will spread. Breast cancer is only an inherited disease. These are some of the most common myths about breast cancer among Latina women. SHARE, a non-profit that educates women about breast cancer, has created a 16-page, full-color novela to dispel these myths. Se Valiente…Son Tus Senos© (Be Brave - They're Your Breasts) tells the story of “Ivette,” a Latina hairdresser who faces a breast cancer scare and learns how to be proactive about her health. “Breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer death among Latina women and the five-year survival rates remain lower than those of other groups,” said SHARE’s Executive Director Alice Yaker. “Language and cultural ...
Read MoreThe Lance Armstrong Foundation’s LIVESTRONG campaign is expanding its bilingual outreach to Latino cancer survivors through enhanced multi-media resources, developed with the help of Sandra San Miguel de Majors, a research instructor at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. LIVESTRONG’s effort aims to help more Latinos affected by cancer by increasing visibility and access to bilingual resources on the Internet, cell devices and media. The campaign Web site, LIVESTRONG.org/espanol, for example, underwent major enhancements, adding new videos, audio features and links to Facebook and Twitter messages, thanks to content developed in part by San Miguel de Majors. San Miguel de Majors ...
Read MorePeople with fair skin, blue eyes and red hair still have the highest risk of skin cancer, but doctors say the number of darker-skinned patients with skin lesions is rising, both under the hot Texas sun and nationally. Dr. Bahar F. Firoz of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio says melanoma is increasing among Hispanic women in particular. “Among Hispanic women of all ages in Texas, melanoma incidence increased 4.8 percent every year from 2002 to 2006. That is a very high rate,” Dr. Firoz said. “In Hispanic women over 50, this incidence is a whopping 10.8 percent. Overall, the incidence of melanoma is increasing in darker-skinned patients.” Dr. Firoz, assistant professor of dermatology and cutaneous surgery in the Health Science Center School of ...
Read MoreMany decry the fact that only 3 to 5 percent of adults with cancer in the U.S. join clinical trials, but a deeper challenge emerges when you put faces to these numbers. Close to 90 percent of those who do enroll in trials are white, and only 5.6 percent are Latino. Read here about what the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is doing to increase the enrollment of minority and underserved patients in clinical trials. Also read more about the effort by Redes En Acción, the Latino cancer research network led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday, to use patient navigation to boost pediatric cancer clinical trial recruitment in South Texas. Redes, working closely to outreach to and educate the Latino ...
Read MoreWith the nation facing a healthcare crisis, Latinos and racial/ethnic minorities are paying a high price for health care disparities: diminished health and, quite literally, lives lost, the New York Times-Union reports. Hispanic women, for example, have the highest rates of new cases of cervical cancer and the second highest death rate from cervical cancer. More from the story: Studies have found that cultural and communications challenges lead to treatment delays, receipt of wrong benefits or services, misdiagnoses and medical errors. People who have limited English proficiency are more likely to use expensive emergency room services for primary care since they may seek care only in emergency situations. Inadequate patient-provider communication negatively impacts medication ...
Read MoreMay is National Cancer Research Month, declared by the U.S. Congress in 2007, in recognition of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and its focus on high quality, innovative cancer research. Latinos suffer greater incidence of certain cancers, and worse outcomes in others. Why is basic cancer research so important for all races/ethnicities? Watch the AACR's video here or below to find out: To learn more, visit the AACR's Web site, which features information on getting involved, including contributing to the AACR Foundation for the Prevention and Cure of Cancer and e-mailing ...
Read MoreBy 2050, nearly one in every three people will be Latino. Yet Latinos tend to suffer a heavier burden of certain health problems, such as higher obesity rates and worse breast cancer outcomes, said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of SaludToday and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Ramirez recently addressed Latino cancer issues as the 2010 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lecturer. "The challenge is that, as a group, Latinos have less education, higher poverty rates, less access to healthcare and lower rates of insurance," she said. "They also bring unique cultural customs that we need to understand to improve their access to care and response to treatment. We need to ...
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