Minorities and Low-Income Disadvantaged in Cancer War

Research shows that the death-rates of minority cancer victims are higher than whites. According to HealthDay, black men and women are 45% more likely to die from the disease than whites. In addition, low-income cancer victims are more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage, thus leading to higher death rates.

So why does this unjust disparity exist? Minorities and those living in poverty have less access to information about cancer, screening, and quality/affordable care. Effects of this problem were reported in a study released today, which claims that low-income men were not receiving prostate cancer screening services that have been shown to reduce the diagnosis of late-stage cancers in the general population. (Study to be published in The Journal of Urology in February '09).

In an accompanying editorial, M. Norman Oliver of the University of Virginia School of Medicine comments that men from minority groups who live in poverty and are diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to die of their disease than those men with a higher socioeconomic status.

African-Americans have a disproportionately high rate of poverty with some 25% living below the federal poverty level compared to 8% of the white population in that category. This racial disparity in combination with the socioeconomic disparity already discussed places African- American men diagnosed with prostate cancer at an even greater risk of presenting with incurable disease.