Shinagawa
SM.
The excess burden of breast carcinoma in minority and medically underserved
communities: application, research, and redressing institutional racism.
Cancer 2000;88(5 Suppl):1217-23.
This review article discusses the data relevant to President Clinton's February
21, 1998 radio address to the nation announcing his ambitious goal of eliminating
racial and ethnic disparities in six health areas, including cancer, by
the year 2010.
Three important components to achieving this goal for the nation are
outlined. First, the nation should apply all of the knowledge already
gathered. With regard to cancer, everything known about prevention, control,
diagnosis, and treatment, cancer incidence could be lowered by 25% and
cancer mortality by 50%. Second, research is needed to document the burden
of disease. This requires high quality data that includes race/ethnic-specific
statistics for all sub-populations in the United States. This article
emphasizes the lack of data on Asian and Pacific Islanders. Third, acknowledgement
and redressing of institutional racism is required, which includes policies
to close hospitals in areas that largely serve racial/ethnic minorities
and addressing practitioner attitudes and misperceptions.
