More Cancer Research on Ethnic Minorities and Poor Urged by Study

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 18, 1999

WASHINGTON -- A report by the Institute of Medicine has urged the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to increase efforts to determine why poor Americans and some ethnic minorities are more susceptible to develop and die from certain cancers. The Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Medicine frOM), which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences, released the study "The Unequal Burden of Cancer: An Assessment of NIH Research and Programs for Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved" on Jan. 20, 1999.

The report found that the National Cancer Institute, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, spends only 1 percent of its budget -- or $24 million -- on studies of ethnic and medically underserved groups,

"With the population becoming increasingly diverse, it is critical that we learn why some ethnic minorities and the medically underserved are more prone to cancer and less likely to survive it," said study committee chair Dr. M. Alfred Haynes, former president and dean, Drew Postgraduate Medical School.

For reasons not fully understood, Asian Americans are more likely to develop stomach and liver cancer than White Americans; African American men are disproportionately affected by prostrate cancer; and cervical cancer is higher among Hispanic and Vietnamese American women, according to the study.

Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan, who testified before an U.S. Senate panel in Washington in late January, underscored the study's conclusions.

"What is needed is an exponential leap forward in the orientation of NIH officials with respect to their approach to ethnic minorities and underserved communities," Sullivan told a Senate appropriations panel.

Sullivan, who served as HHS secretary during the Bush Administration, said the study "clearly demonstrates that much more needs to be done to address the needs of the nation's minority citizens."

The National Institutes of Health funded the study. The Institute of Medicine is a private, nonprofit organization that issues health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences.

Copies of "The Unequal Burden of Cancer: An Assessment of NIH Research and Programs for Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved" are available from the National Academy Press. The National Academy Press can be reached at 1-800-6246242.