I plan to keep my blog focused on issues concerning breast cancer but found a few facts I wanted to share about other cancers and how they affect diverse groups. Medical organizations are finally getting around to studying how cancer affects various ethnic groups in the United States.
And one of the most startling facts is that African American men have the highest death rates from cancer followed by black women.
And I also learned that African American men have the highest incidence of cancer of any ethnic group followed by white men and Hispanic men.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised but I was. Are you surprised? The physician who presented the seminar also runs the diversity program at one of the local hospitals. Why is a diversity program needed to look at cancer?
The program addresses how cancer affects everybody, she told us at the start of the session. It allows us to focus on who needs us. Cancer does discriminate and we need to know why some groups are affected more than other groups. For example, more cancers are being seen in younger patients than ever before.
Other interesting facts: African Americans have a 20 percent higher chance of developing colorectal cancer. Of those who get it, 40 percent have a higher chance of dying from it. Because some of this information has been gathered, it has helped develop new drugs to treat cancer, she said. And blacks should get their first colonoscopy done at age 45, not age 50 as is the conventional wisdom.
And how do you survive or prevent cancer? Start with the basics. Good nutrition. Decrease fat intake; eat good fat such as olive oil; decrease intake of transfat; increase fiber intake and increase fresh vegetables and fruit in your diet.
And have regular check-ups.
I thought these were startling facts
