Comprehensive Strategic Plan To Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities

Abstract

Despite progress in biomedical science over the past several decades that has increased longevity and improved quality of life for many in our Nation, a heavier burden of disease continues to be borne by some populations, particularly minorities, the poor and underserved. For example, the death rate from prostate cancer among African American men is almost twice that of white men, and stomach cancer mortality is substantially higher among Asian-Pacific Islanders, including Native Hawaiians, than other populations. Cervical cancer incidence in Hispanic women has been consistently higher at all ages than for other women, and African American women have the highest death rate from cervical cancer. Overall, men are about 50 percent more likely than women to die from cancer, and among all women, Alaskan Natives are about 30 percent more likely to die from cancer. It is these disturbing statistics coupled with the fact that reductions in cancer incidence and mortality are occurring in many, but not all, sectors of our Nation, that prompts NCI to examine major determinants of cancer health disparities (e.g., poverty, culture, and social injustice). It is the interrelationship among these factors that must be carefully weaved into the cancer research agenda in order to remedy the unequal burden of cancer.