Enhancing the delivery of cancer care to the disadvantaged: the challenge to providers.

Few attempts have been made to document and highlight the challenges faced by professionals who work with medically and economically disadvantaged persons seeking cancer care. This report analyzes and summarizes the testimony presented by such professionals at a series of nationwide hearings in 1989 sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The purpose of the hearings was to document the effects of economic and medical disadvantage on the development of cancer and cancer care. Among those presenting testimony were persons with personal cancer experiences, family members, and partners of cancer patients, healthcare providers, and related community liaisons. Professionals who worked with disadvantaged persons shared their experiences during the hearings. They suggested that the beliefs and attitudes of their peers were a major deterrent to providing cancer care. Processes and systems discouraged referrals. Lack of access to resources to serve the needs of the disadvantaged was the greatest obstacle to care.