The Cancer Research Center of Hawaii has received a $30,000 grant to join a national study to reduce cancer among Asian Americans. Cancer deaths rise
for Asian AmericansA Hawaii study will try to explain
disparities among ethnic groupsStar-Bulletin staff
The death rate of Asian Americans from cancer is growing faster than any other racial group, although they have a relatively low risk of cancer overall, the center says. They also experience various forms of the disease disproportionately, it says.
For instance, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are three times more likely to die of liver cancer than Caucasians and twice as likely to die of stomach cancer, according to the research center.
Cervical cancer in women in some Asian groups is up to five times more common than in Caucasians.
"This project will define cancer awareness, prevention and early-detection needs among the Asian immigrant populations in Hawaii, as well as the need to develop training for individuals who would do research in this area," said Dr. Reginald Ho, medical oncologist at Straub Clinic & Hospital and principal investigator for the Hawaii team.
The funding, from the National Cancer Institute, will be used to collect facts and assess cancer needs among immigrant Asian groups in Hawaii.
Originally, the National Cancer Institute provided $7.6 million for the five-year project to reduce ethnic disparities in cancer nationally. It is called the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training.
Funding has increased to more than $8 million with the addition of the Hawaii Cancer Research Center and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The project is based at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine and led by Dr. Moon Chen Jr., associate director for Davis Cancer Center and principal investigator for the national research study.
Ho is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine and past national president of the American Cancer Society.
Other Hawaii researchers involved are: Dr. Reuben Guerrero, Straub medical oncologist; Dr. Abraham Nomura, Cancer Research Center epidemiologist, and Dr. Evaon Wong-Kim, assistant professor at the UH School of Social Work.
The Cancer Information Service of Hawaii and the Hawaii-Pacific chapter of the American Cancer Society are collaborating with the project.
During the next six months, the team will examine the extent of cancer among Hawaii's immigrant Asian groups, including tobacco usage and control, early cancer screening and detection needs and the stage at which cancer is diagnosed among them.
The project is one of 18 funded by the National Cancer Institute in its Special Populations Network. Cancer awareness and prevention programs will be targeted to certain segments of the Asian-American population, which includes more than 20 ethnic groups and several hundred different languages and dialects.
Another goal is to increase the number of Asian Americans participating in clinical and prevention trials, to train more Asian American researchers in community cancer prevention and conduct research aimed at lessening cancer among Asian Americans.
They are being targeted because two-thirds of those in the United States are foreign-born and experience barriers to obtaining early cancer prevention and detection information and services when their cancers are in the curable, early stages, the center said.
The other one-third generally has been reached by the health care system, it said.
Other cancer centers participating in the project are Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston; Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York City; Solove Cancer Research Center in Columbus, Ohio; University of California-San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA.
The Hawaii Cancer Research Center, a UH-Manoa research unit, is one of 61 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers nationally. It is located at 1236 Lauhala St.