Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos

Abstract

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Latinos, who have a unique demographic profile that departs from the US public health pattern. Latinos have a lower incidence than non-Latino whites for some common cancers such as breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate, yet they are disproportionately affected by some less common cancers, such as gall bladder and infection-related cancers of the liver, intrahepatic bile duct, stomach, and uterine cervix. In addition to increased incidence for some cancers, US Latinos experience other cancer disparities. For one, cancer is often diagnosed at a later stage in Latinos when the disease is more difficult to treat, perhaps the result of economic and cultural barriers to cancer care and lower use of prevention screening. Second, accurately characterizing Latino cancer risk is challenging, because Latinos are underrepresented in cancer registries, research, and clinical trials. Thus, these data do not reflect the proportion of Latinos in the US population. Compounding the problem is the fact that these data commonly consider Latinos as a single group when, in fact, Latinos are heterogeneous and may differ by genetic admixture, country of origin, nativity, degree of acculturation, and socioeconomic status—all factors that have been implicated in cancer risk. The conference, Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos, brought together cancer disparities researchers to discuss the latest research findings, identify knowledge gaps, and stimulate ideas for new research in cancer health disparities among Latinos. Conference topics covered the entire cancer continuum, including advances in risk assessment, primary prevention, screening, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.