San Diego State University and the University of California at San Diego are hooking up to eliminate the disparity in cancer deaths between different minority and ethnic groups and to determine which types of outreach, education, training and prevention methods are most appropriate across populations. The funding for the project is provided through a five-year $15 million grant from the National Cancer Institute ( NCI ) of the National Institutes of Health and education and community outreach programs in the San Diego region, reports Media-Newswire.com. “Because we have such diversity here in San Diego, the issue of cancer disparity is acute,” said Partnership co-principal investigator Stanley Maloy, Ph.D., dean of San Diego State’s College of Sciences. “This new collaboration between SDSU and UC San Diego is a true partnership that will make inroads in this important area of cancer research and directly benefit the health of San Diegans.” The partnership is the only such program in California. John Carethers, professor of medicine and chief of the division of gastroenterology at UC-San Diego, said that the project aims to “develop a stronger national cancer program aimed at understanding the reasons behind the significant cancer disparities and the impact on minority populations. “This award helps address sometimes neglected cancer research that is specific to minority populations, particularly here in the San Diego area.” More American White women develop breast cancer, but African-American women are 15 percent more likely to die from the disease, statistics show. African Americans have the highest rates for colorectal cancer of any racial group in the United States and have higher rates of prostate cancer and present at younger ages than other groups. While breast cancer is diagnosed about 40 percent less often in Hispanic women than in non-Hispanic women, it is more frequently diagnosed at a later stage in Hispanics. Cancer treatment for minority populations, particularly those in poor communities, generally lags behind non-minority groups.

TAGS: cancer, disparity, National Cancer Institute, San Diego

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