Minorities’ Cancer Rates Focus of Study

The National Cancer Institute on Thursday announced $60 million in new grants to large research institutions to help link them with community programs to better prevent, treat and study cancer among racial minorities.

The aim is to reduce the unequal cancer burden borne by African Americans, Latinos and other minority groups.

“It is designed to encourage people from the community to work with scientists,” said Dr. Richard D. Klausner, director of the institute.

UC Irvine College of Medicine will receive $3.3 million to establish the Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network. The center, to be run by Dr. F. Allan Hubbell, will seek to improve awareness about cancer and increase the number of clinical researchers among the Pacific Islander population.

Another goal of the cancer institute project is to enhance recruitment of ethnic groups into clinical trials. Only about 20% of the 20,000 people now entering clinical trials each year are from ethnic minority groups. The UCI program, which will be run in conjunction with the National Office of Samoan Affairs in Carson, also will recruit Pacific Islanders for clinical trials.

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death for all Americans, but African Americans have a cancer death rate about 35% higher than that of whites, while other ethnic groups get certain forms of cancer in disproportionately high numbers.

Possible reasons include poverty, lifestyle, cultural differences and access to health care. Also, recent studies have suggested that health care providers often offer different treatments depending on race and that whites fare better in this regard.

“The question we are dealing with is why cancer affects . . . groups differently,” said Dr. Harold Freeman, chairman of a presidential advisory panel on cancer. “The reasons for these disparities need to be investigated further.”

For example, “poverty and cancer are generally a lethal combination,” he added. “Poor people have low access to preventive services, and less knowledge. They are living in conditions that are substandard. They have more risks due to lifestyle.”

The Cancer Institute awarded 18 grants to 17 research institutions, many of which have a history of working within their communities on health care issues.

They include UC Irvine, which will establish the Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network to increase cancer awareness, research and recruitment for clinical trials among American Samoans, Tongans and Chimorras/Guamanians.

Times staff writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.