Abstract CN03-01: Viewpoint: Past, current, and future health disparities research in cancer survivorship

This presentation will provide an overview of past, current, and future NIH/NCI supported research in health disparities (HD) during cancer survivorship, defined here as studies conducted among individuals and their caregivers after initial treatment for cancer. Most early HD studies of cancer survivorship focused on racial/ethnic group differences, such as the NCI Black/White Cancer Survival Study, conducted in the 1980's. This landmark study included data on coping, social support, health promotion behaviors, and health care utilization of individuals surviving cancers of the breast, colon, bladder, or corpus uterine. More recently, the definition of HD has expanded beyond race/ethnicity to include rural and elderly populations, those with low education/income, and culturally distinct groups. In 2006, one-third of grants managed by the Office of Cancer Survivorship addressed HD issues. Examples of these studies range from interventions to assist rural African American survivors of prostate cancer, to the examination of quality and amount of follow up care among low-income, Latina breast cancer survivors. Future cancer survivorship research is needed that examines the contribution to HD of systematic differences in patient education, patient literacy, access to quality follow up care and rehabilitation, family needs, approaches to care giving, employment demands, social capital, and geographic location. In particular, research on cancer survivorship-HD is needed in populations rarely included in cancer survivorship research: recent immigrants, Native Americans, and Native Alaskan populations, and subpopulations of Asian-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. Lastly, cancer survivorship research is needed that tests strategies for diminishing or eliminating documented HD among long-term survivors of cancer.