The needs of racial/ethnic LGBT individuals across the cancer care Continuum

Abstract

In the past two decades there has been a proliferation of research, services and political and social advocacy for sexual minority individuals. Despite these gains, knowledge about sexual minorities of color remains quite limited. The majority of studies on LGBT and cancer are hindered by low representation of non-Whites and few studies have large enough samples of people of color to permit reliable statistical analyses and meaningful results. Smaller-scale studies that rely on volunteer samples often include larger proportions of race/ethnic minority women, but even studies that purposefully target these groups are limited by relatively small subgroup sample sizes, particularly for groups other than African American and Latina. At least part of the problem of recruitment of LGBT individuals of color relates to historical distrust of research and White researchers in communities of color. However, other factors likely include the lack of cultural competency of researchers, failure to utilize evidence-based and proven approaches to recruit and retain individuals of color, research protocols that include exclusion criteria that disproportionately impact participants of color, and the reluctance of some people to disclose a sexual-or gender-minority status, to name just a few challenges. Against this backdrop of limited empirical data, we provide an overview of the unique issues facing LGBT individuals of color, and provide a discussion of general and unique risk factors across the cancer control continuum.