Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79905, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud. 2021 Apr 8;7(2). doi: 10.1101/mcs.a005967. Print 2021 Apr.
Cancer is a challenging, multifaceted disease that involves a combination of biological and nonbiological factors. Aside from COVID-19, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and the first among Hispanic Americans. The Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the United States, which is rapidly growing in size. Unfortunately, U.S. Hispanics and other minority groups experience many different health disparities, resulting in poor survival outcomes and a reduced quality of life. Factors such as genomic mutations, lower socioeconomic status, lack of education, reduced access to health care, comorbidities, and environmental factors all contribute to these health-care inequalities. In the context of blood cancer health disparities, Hispanic patients are often diagnosed at a younger age and have worse outcomes compared with non-Hispanic individuals. In this commentary, we highlight the existing knowledge about cancer health disparities in the Hispanic population, with a focus on chronic and acute leukemia. In our experience at the U.S./Mexican border, analysis of several different blood cancers demonstrated that younger Hispanic patients with acute lymphoid or myeloid leukemia have higher incidence rates and worse prognoses. A combined approach, involving improved health-care access and better knowledge of the underlying factors, will allow for more timely diagnoses and the development of intervention strategies aimed at reducing or eliminating the disparities.
癌症是一种具有挑战性的、多方面的疾病，涉及生物和非生物因素的结合。除了 COVID-19 之外，癌症是美国的第二大死亡原因，也是西班牙裔美国人的第一大死亡原因。西班牙裔人口是美国最大的少数族裔群体，其规模正在迅速增长。不幸的是，美国西班牙裔和其他少数族裔群体经历了许多不同的健康差距，导致生存结果不佳和生活质量下降。基因组突变、较低的社会经济地位、缺乏教育、医疗保健机会减少、合并症和环境因素等因素都导致了这些医疗保健方面的不平等。在血液癌症健康差距方面，西班牙裔患者的诊断年龄通常比非西班牙裔患者年轻，并且预后较差。在我们在美国/墨西哥边境的经验中，对几种不同的血液癌症的分析表明，患有急性淋巴细胞或髓系白血病的年轻西班牙裔患者的发病率更高，预后更差。一种综合方法，包括改善医疗保健机会和更好地了解潜在因素，将允许更及时的诊断和制定干预策略，旨在减少或消除差距。
