Office of Diversity Recognizes National Minority Cancer Awareness Week

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Office of Diversity Recognizes National Minority Cancer Awareness Week

Posted by Unknown Thursday, January 15, 2015 0 comments

Curtiland Deville, MD has a research interest in assessing and improving diversity in the cancer physician workforce as a means to addressing health disparities. In this article, he discusses National Minority Cancer Awareness Week.

On April 8, 1987, the U.S. House of Representatives' Joint Resolution 119 designated the full third week in April as National Minority Cancer Awareness Week. As explained in the Congressional Record, Resolution 119 drew attention to "an unfortunate, but extremely important fact about cancer. While cancer affects men and women of every age, race, ethnic background and economic class, the disease has a disproportionately severe impact on minorities and the economically disadvantaged."

Why Diversity and Disparities Matter

Each year in the United States more than 1.6 million* people are diagnosed with cancer. Of those, racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected. Although complex social, economic, and cultural factors may play a role, ultimately when considering and controlling for all of the above, racial and ethnic differences in outcomes still exist across the majority of cancers.

Source: American Cancer Society:*

Although white women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, black women are more likely to die from breast cancer.
Blacks are less likely to be screened for colorectal cancer and more likely to die from it.
Hispanic women are less likely to be screened for and more likely to be diagnosed with and die from cervical cancer.
Blacks are less likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer, but more likely to die from it, if diagnosed.
Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it compared to white men.

The Abramson Cancer Center's Office of Diversity

The Abramson Cancer Center joined CityLights Network and American Cancer Society at the Ezekiel Baptist Church in southwest Philadelphia for a free community education program about prostate and breast cancer. Left: Carey Davis, director of CityLights Network, Tom Henry, Brenda Bryant, senior research / outreach coordinator for the ACC Office of Diversity, Curtiland Deville, Jr., MD radiation oncologist and Carmen Guerra, MD, Penn physician.

The Abramson Cancer Center Office of Diversity was established in 2013 by the Abramson Cancer Center director, Dr. Chi Van Dang. The Abramson Cancer Center Office of Diversity supports the Abramson Cancer Center’s mission, vision and values by promoting diversity and inclusion as an integral part of the Center’s goals to understand, prevent, treat and cure cancer.

The Abramson Cancer Center's Office of Diversity supports initiatives like the Minority Cancer Health Awareness Week seeking to raise the awareness of cancer health disparities.

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