Asian Week yesterday released several findings from the American Cancer Society showing 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”.
In the current health care debate—or rather, the mob-rule opposition to intelligent and pragmatic discussions on improving nationwide health and wellness—statistics such as those revealed in these findings remain but a blip lost in all the noise and shouting.
For Asian Americans, the pattern of cancer is unique; and, particularly disturbing among several findings is that for this group, the annual number of deaths due to cancer is higher than that for heart disease. This sets Asian Americans apart from other major ethnic groups where heart disease in the number one killer. Below are the other findings:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Although Asian Americans have “lower incidence and mortality rates from all cancers combined than all other racial/ethnic groups”, it is imperative that cultural and linguistic barriers be overcome to better understand and address the implications of such findings.
In the current health care debate—or rather, the mob-rule opposition to intelligent and pragmatic discussions on improving nationwide health and wellness—statistics such as those revealed in these findings remain but a blip lost in all the noise and shouting.
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