People 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 ...
Many 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 ...
With 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 ...
May 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 ...
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 ...
The true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated, according to the President’s Cancer Panel new report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now. The report, which presents recommendations to mitigate or eliminate key regulatory, political, industrial, and cultural barriers to understanding and reducing environmental and occupational carcinogenic exposures, given the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer. It's statement to President Obama reads: "Environmental exposures that increase the national cancer burden do not represent a new front in the ongoing war on cancer. However, the grievous harm from this group of carcinogens has not been addressed adequately by the National Cancer Program. The American ...
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 ...
April 18-24 is National Minority Cancer Awareness Week (NMCAW), which focuses on minority communities across the U.S. to bring awareness to the impact of cancer in these communities and provide resources to help eliminate disparities in diagnosis and treatment. About 1 in 2 Hispanic men and 1 in 3 Hispanic women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and cancer is the second leading cause of death among Hispanics. For these reasons, cancer screening is extremely important. Latinas, for reasons to get your mammogram, watch our video here or below: Latino men need screening, too. Why? Watch this video here or below to find ...
Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Research Network, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute and directed by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of SaludToday and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is celebrating 10 years of work to reduce Latino cancer. Redes has generated more than $200 million in funding for cancer research, trained more than 200 students and health professionals and conducted more than 2,000 community education events, bilingual materials and more. Watch a stirring video here or below about the program’s achievements among Latinos. Then join us! Also, watch the program’s six new PSAs touting Latino cancer prevention in English or Spanish here. To request broadcast-quality formats of the PSAs, email us at ...
