Cyclist and cancer prevention activist Lance Armstrong visited patients and met with researchers to discuss the Latino cancer burden in San Francisco on Sept. 21 in a visit facilitated in part by Sandra San Miguel, a research instructor at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Armstrong met with the researchers of the northwest site of the IHPR's Latino cancer research network, Redes En Acción, including researchers Drs. Eliseo Pérez-Stable and Anna Nápoles and promotora Marynieves Diaz-Mendez. Armstrong called his meeting with Redes researchers "incredible," and lauded the Redes/LIVESTRONG National Promotores Education and Outreach project. The project has identified and trained bilingual ...
More than 22 million adults have not had screening tests for colon cancer, and more than 7 million women have not had a recent mammogram to screen for breast cancer as recommended, according to reports in a new monthly scientific publication called CDC Vital Signs. About a third of people are not getting colon cancer screening, which can detect the disease early when it is most treatable. This could be because they don't know they can get colon cancer, they don't have insurance or a doctor (a more likely case among Latinos), or their doctor hasn't recommended screening. Some women are not getting mammograms as recommended. About one of five women between the ages of 50 and 74 has not had a mammogram in the past two years. Latinas get screened at an even less frequent rate. The CDC ...
By 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 ...
New study findings show an increased risk for cancer among Latino populations, but unique demographic characteristics suggest the problem may be worse than currently known. "As we see the Latino population age, we are going to see the current disparity in knowledge and outcomes become an explosion," said Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Ramirez received the fifth annual AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship at the 101st AACR Annual Meeting 2010 and delivered a lecture, "Networks in Acción for Latino Cancer Research," on April 18. Currently, the rate of breast cancer among Latinas is lower than that in the general ...
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institution of Texas (CPRIT) this week announced the $6.8 million to fund 12 new cancer prevention programs throughout Texas. One of the projects is led by Cynthia Mojica, PhD, a researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Dr. Mojica's project, called Salud San Antonio!, will allow her to position four community health workers (promotoras) at four community health groups to deliver a cancer education and outreach program to increase screening rates and knowledge of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer among Latinas living in 10 zip codes in San Antonio's West and South sides. These zip codes have been identified by the San Antonio ...
Racial and ethnic disparities in cancer survival are greatest for cancers that can be detected early and treated successfully, including breast and prostate cancer, according to a new study, Medical News Today reports. Disparities are small for pancreatic, lung and other cancers with more limited early detection and treatment options. The study, published in the October 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, found that, compared with whites, substantial survival disparities existed in more treatable cancers in Latinos, African-Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and several Asian/Pacific Islander population subgroups. The finding highlight the need to develop specific health policies and interventions to address social ...
Rates of new diagnoses and rates of death from all cancers combined declined significantly in the most recent time period for men and women overall and for most racial and ethnic populations in the U.S., according to a report from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The drops are driven by declines in rates of new cases and rates of death for the three leading in men (lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers) and for two of the three leading cancers in women (breast and colorectal cancer). The NCI findings were published online Dec. 7, 2009, in the journal Cancer. Among racial/ethnic groups, cancer death rates were highest in black men and women and lowest in Asian/Pacific Islander men and women. Although trends in death rates by race/ ethnicity were similar for most cancer sites, ...
Joan Treviño Lawhon of San Antonio had a choice: let breast cancer take over, or fight to survive. "Within an hour of my diagnosis, I was at Barnes & Noble buying layman's books on breast cancer. We can freeze and let the disease consume us, or we can fight. My choice was to fight. I was going to make sure my choice was an informed one." She highlighted passages in her books and wrote down questions to ask her doctors. She leaned on her faith and her family when she had to have surgery. Now she is a survivor. "Now if people see me in a low-cut gown, I love hearing them say, 'You don't look like you had cancer,' because they are right. I had cancer. And I thank God for those beautiful ...
Latinas are less likely than others groups to get an annual mammogram, which can help detect breast cancer early, when it is most treatable. This puts them at higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer at advanced stages. So, just in time for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, check out our playlist of videos in English or Spanish that puts an emotional spin on why Latinas should get cancer screening. These public service announcements were developed by researchers at Redes En Acción, a national network dedicated to reducing Latino cancer. Redes is funded by the National Cancer Institute and directed by the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind ...
