Cancer and its Impact on Asian Americans
August 14, 2009
More than 1 million people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer each year according to the American Cancer Society. Approximately one out of every two American men and one out of every three American women will have some type of cancer during their lifetime.1 Data show that racial and ethnic minorities and medically underserved groups are more likely to develop cancer and die from it than the general U.S. population.2
Statistics on Asians and Cancer
Cancer is a considerable health issue among all racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Even with lower incidence and mortality rates from all cancers combined than all other racial/ethnic groups, the Asian American ethnic group’s pattern of cancers is distinctive and significant.
• Cancer affects Asian Americans in very different ways, based on country of origin. According to a study of the five largest Asian American groups – Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese – colorectal cancer rates are highest among Chinese Americans; prostate cancer is more common and more often deadly among Filipino men; and Vietnamese women have the highest incidence and death rates from cervical cancer.4
• For Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the annual number of deaths from cancer exceeds that for heart disease, making them the only major U.S. racial or ethnic group for which this is true.3
• Asian Americans have higher rates of cancers related to infectious conditions, particularly tumors of the cervix, stomach, liver and nasopharynx and are at lower risk for cancers of the lung, colon and rectum, breast and prostate.3
• Vietnamese men in California have by far the highest incidence and death rates (54.3 and 35.5 per 100,000, respectively) from liver cancer of all the Asian ethnic groups. Their incidence rate is more than seven times higher than the incidence rate among non-Hispanic White men. 3
According to the U.S Census Bureau, the Asian American population is one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the country. Improvements are being made to the quality of nationwide cancer incidence, mortality, and behavioral risk factor data for each of the Asian American ethnic populations. Another area for improvement is the cultural and linguistic barriers related to cancer screenings that may exist for Asian American ethnic groups.
The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training (AANCART), a National Cancer Institute-funded Network, and the American Cancer Society have collaborated to produce a searchable Web portal for Asian language cancer materials for lay audiences (www.cancer.org/apicem or www.aancart.org/apicem). The site serves as a single point of access for cancer education materials translated into more than 12 Asian and Pacific Islander languages.
1 Cancer Reference Information: Who Gets Cancer? American Cancer Society. Accessed online at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1x_ Who_gets_cancer.asp on Dec. 22, 2008.
2 Unequal Cancer Burden, Disease’s Burden Worse for Minorities, Medically Underserved. American Cancer Society. Accessed online at http://www. cancer.org/docroot/SPC/content/SPC_1_Minority_Cancer_Unequal_Burden.asp on Dec. 22, 2008.
3 Melissa McCracken, Miho Olsen, Moon S. Chen, Jr., Ahmedin Jemal, Michael Thun, Vilma Cokkinides, Dennis Deapen and Elizabeth Ward. Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Associated Risk Factors Among Asian Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese Ethnicities. CA Cancer J Clin 2007; 57:190-205.
4 Cancer Disparities: Key Statistics. American Cancer Society. Accessed online at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SPC/content/SPC_1_Minority_Cancer_Unequal_Burden_Sidebar1.asp on Dec. 22, 2008.
5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Program of Cancer Registries. United States Cancer Statistics. 2004 U.S. cancers by type. Accessed online at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/uscs/Table.aspx?Group=TableAll&Year=2004&Display=n on Dec. 30, 2008.
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