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Minorities Urged to Get Cancer Screens Recent Studies Show Higher Mortality Rates for Minorities

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 May 2005, 21:00 CDT

Dee Peart's breast self-examination five years ago led her down a path to a frightening unknown - but ultimately to enlightenment she now shares with others.

The Bloomingdale resident found a lump in her left breast. A biopsy revealed cancer, leading to the first of two battles against the disease.

Now, after surgery and months of treatment, she has a message for other blacks like herself - get tested for early signs of cancer.

Health-care advocates are pushing that theme during National Minority Cancer Awareness Week, which ends Saturday.

Recent American Cancer Society studies show alarmingly high mortality and incidence rates of cancer among minorities, particularly blacks.

Poverty and absence of health insurance are the main contributors to the problem, cancer society experts said.

Cancer death rates among black males are 1.4 times higher than whites and 1.2 times higher for black females.

Research also showed Asians, American Indians and Hispanics sustain higher mortality rates from stomach and liver cancer than whites.

Evelyn Diaz, a physician at Elgin's Sherman Hospital and board member with the American Cancer Society's Illinois division, said historical precedents have caused some minorities to distrust the medical establishment.

She cited the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study in which the American government from the 1930s to 1970s studied, without providing medication, impoverished black men who had syphilis.

Diaz also noted widespread distribution of birth control pills to rural women in Puerto Rico by American doctors in the 1950s and 1960s. The early versions of the pill had serious side effects.

"There's a lot of mistrust of the system," said Diaz, who is from Puerto Rico.

The search for links between cultural and ethnic origin and cancer continues.

But there are some universals such as diet and exercise that are key to prevention of cancer, Diaz believes.

"If you exercise on a regular basis, it decreases your chances of getting a disease," she said.

For people who suspect they have cancer and can't afford health insurance, the cancer society can help, Diaz stressed.

"People shouldn't be afraid to continue forward because treatment is available," she said.

'A bad situation'

For months, D'Patrizia Arias of Schaumburg suffered from persistent pain in her breast. She insisted on a biopsy even though her doctor couldn't find anything amiss.

"Something kept telling me something was wrong," she said.

She had cancer.

"I was shocked," said Arias, a single mother. "It was a bad, bad situation."

She took a year off work from her job at the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg hotel and credits her boss and fellow employees for arranging that she still got regular paychecks.

Now Arias, who originally is from Peru, visits homes in the local Hispanic community to educate others about cancer treatment.

In her travels, she's come across some alarming misconceptions, such as the idea that cancer is contagious.

There's also a fear among some illegal immigrants that if they get treatment for their cancer it will lead to being turned over to federal authorities, she said.

'I've been blessed'

Dee Peart speculates that some blacks are victims of their own resilience and chose to ignore symptoms of cancer. Others who believe they're being discriminated against at work may keep their illness secret for fear it could be used against them.

"I do know of African Americans who died of cancer because they waited too late," she said.

Peart suffered another blow in 2004 when cancer was found in her other breast. She underwent additional treatment and now has a clean bill of health from her doctors.

Peart believes she is living proof of how early detection can make a difference.

"Everyone has crises in their lives," she said. "The key is to make yourself look for the positives in the experience and learn from it."

Peart now shares her experiences with others as a volunteer with the cancer society, encouraging women to get regular mammograms and men to get screenings for prostate cancer.

Being a cancer-prevention advocate is a way of giving back to the people who supported her through the illness, she said.

"I'm just an average person," she said, "and I know I've been blessed."

Source: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.

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