The ICC Cancer Fact Sheets were created because medically underserved populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities, experience disproportionately greater suffering and compromised health from cancer compared to the U.S. population as a whole. This is due in large part to delayed diagnosis coupled with less than appropriate patient care. ⁽²⁾  In addition, individuals of all ethnic backgrounds who are poor, lack health insurance, or otherwise have inadequate access to quality cancer treatment experience higher cancer incidence, higher mortality rates, and poorer survival rates. ^(3,4) As these special populations continue to grow at a rapid rate, they will as a whole become the “majority” population of our nation. Reasons for health status disparities in minority and medically underserved populations include:

	unequal socioeconomic status, resulting in unequal availability, accessibility and utilization of health services;
	unequal diagnostic work-up and treatment after entry into the healthcare system;
	unequal diagnostic work-up and treatment after entry into the healthcare system;
	social, racial and environmental injustice; and
	individual as well as institutional prejudice and discrimination.

	Any Health Professional including:    Primary Care and other Physicians    Other Clinicians    Oncology Social Workers    Oncology Nurses
	Outreach Coordinators
	Legislators and Policy Makers
	Community-based Organizations
	Faith Communities
	Ethnic, Racial, and Medically Underserved Communities

How should the ICC Cancer Fact Sheets be used?

	As stand-alone educational pieces
	To raise awareness of disparities in racial, ethnic, and medically underserved  communities
	As background research on a racial or ethnic population

Where Can I get more information?

Additional online information on the Intercultural Cancer Council can be found elsewhere on this site or by contacting us at:

Intercultural Cancer Council
Baylor College of Medicine
Suite #1025
1709 Dryden Road
Houston, TX 77030-3411
Tel: 713.798.4617 
Fax: 713.798.6222 
E-mail: icc@bcm.edu 

References

revised January, 2004