Disparities in Cancer Treatment and Care
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So a lot of people think that this is a new topic or a new word, but actually, we've been talking about disparities in health care for decades. There's a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, who talks about the fact that, of all the injustices we face, injustice in health care access was one of the worst. And those populations that are most affected by these disparities are usually along racial and ethnic lines. And also based upon social determinants of health, be that education or income or lack of access to care, those are the main populations.
But we also see that there are differences even in geographic. So we know that in the Southeast portion of the United States, there's big disparities along those states where there's a very large African-American population, a lot of poverty, decreased health literacy. So we see that those are tied together.
So one of the things that I think that would really make a difference is that we actually address the barriers that are contributing to the disparities. One of the things we often miss is the fact that there is structural racism that has existed since slavery with regard to access to care. But not only access to care, but also the impact that providers have on making sure that their patient gets standard of care.
Those programs that participated in the Affordable Care Act had cancer screening as part of their plan, it was required. So more African-American women got screened for the breast cancer. Therefore, they were diagnosed at an earlier stage. Therefore, less morbidity and mortality. More people got colorectal cancer screening that never got colorectal cancer screening before.
So having means by which we level the access to healthcare is going to be important. One of those other things is also making sure we're addressing participation of minority groups in clinical trials. Be that African-American, be that Asian, be that Native Americans, be that women. Increasing their participation in clinical trials is going to be paramount to making sure that we decrease the disparities we see in those populations.
WINDY DEAN-COLOMB
Cancer disparities, actually defined as a disparity, which means outcomes. Differences based upon different populations, that could be based upon race or ethnicity, that could be based upon age, that could be based on gender, sexuality. It means you have a difference in outcomes. And those outcomes are adverse outcomes. It means that people are doing poorly, people are dying more frequently, people are getting less access to care because of those determinants. So a lot of people think that this is a new topic or a new word, but actually, we've been talking about disparities in health care for decades. There's a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, who talks about the fact that, of all the injustices we face, injustice in health care access was one of the worst. And those populations that are most affected by these disparities are usually along racial and ethnic lines. And also based upon social determinants of health, be that education or income or lack of access to care, those are the main populations.
But we also see that there are differences even in geographic. So we know that in the Southeast portion of the United States, there's big disparities along those states where there's a very large African-American population, a lot of poverty, decreased health literacy. So we see that those are tied together.
So one of the things that I think that would really make a difference is that we actually address the barriers that are contributing to the disparities. One of the things we often miss is the fact that there is structural racism that has existed since slavery with regard to access to care. But not only access to care, but also the impact that providers have on making sure that their patient gets standard of care.
Those programs that participated in the Affordable Care Act had cancer screening as part of their plan, it was required. So more African-American women got screened for the breast cancer. Therefore, they were diagnosed at an earlier stage. Therefore, less morbidity and mortality. More people got colorectal cancer screening that never got colorectal cancer screening before.
So having means by which we level the access to healthcare is going to be important. One of those other things is also making sure we're addressing participation of minority groups in clinical trials. Be that African-American, be that Asian, be that Native Americans, be that women. Increasing their participation in clinical trials is going to be paramount to making sure that we decrease the disparities we see in those populations.