Cancer and social justice

• Published in: Cancer Vol. 104; no. S12; pp. 2891 - 2894
• Main Author: Bal, Dileep G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 15.12.2005
• Subjects: Asian American; Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training; cancer; social justice
• ISSN: 0008-543X; 1097-0142
• DOI: 10.1002/cncr.21508

In the current presentation, as a first‐generation Asian‐American immigrant, the author discussed the dire inequities of the current cancer prevention and control systems in the U.S. and attempted to analyze the root causes of the problem. The universal concern is that the occurrence of cancer, cancer's behavioral antecedents, (diet, physical activity, and tobacco use), the early detection of cancer, and cancer survivorship all relate inversely to education, income, social class, and white race. In other words, not only are cancer rates higher among lesser educated, poorer, and socially deprived individuals, but the availability and benefits of primary, secondary, and tertiary cancer prevention also are rationed, consciously or subconsciously, by current society within and outside the borders of the U.S. Asian Americans are one of the unrecognized populations among these deprived groups. The objective of this article was to provide a thoughtful perspective on this very real problem and why it persists. Because of the audience at the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training meeting, where the current report was presented, the author tried to avoid a treatise on Asian philosophy and values but could not resist the comment that, in archaic Chinese terms, the public health and health care systems in the U.S. today lack balance and harmony. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society. The author, as a first‐generation Asian‐American immigrant, discussed the dire inequities of the current cancer prevention and control systems, in which the ever‐widening gaps in education, social class, and income in the U.S. translate effectively into selectively increased rates of cancer incidence and mortality. Distinct reallocations of extant resources will be needed at the local, state, and national levels of both the public and private sectors if these issues are to be addressed head on, let alone solved.