Symposium Focuses on Equity in Cancer Care

The statistics can be daunting. Black men are roughly twice as likely to die of their prostate cancers and black women are 35 percent more likely to die from their breast cancers than both of their white counterparts, according to the National Cancer Institute. Cancer death rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives increased from 1990 to 2009 while mortality rates for whites trended down over the same time period. Hispanic and Latino Americans make up 8.5 percent of enrollees in clinical trials even though they make up 14.5 percent of the population.