Charting a Path Towards Asian American Cancer Health Equity: A Way Forward.

On July 29, 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration's Oncology Center of Excellence convened Conversations on Cancer. This Conversation, the first ever by the US Food and Drug Administration, focused on Asian Americans and served as the platform for this Commentary. Panelists elaborated on topics ranging from heterogeneity in Asian American demographics to racism through a path to health equity and supplemented this Commentary with literature citations. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing US race group, yet data aggregation obscures distinctions and cancer disparities within the more than 24 million Asians living in the United States with harmful impacts on communities and patients, as illustrated by breast cancer survivor Susan Shinagawa's patient-to-advocate journey. Bigotry against Asian Americans has been pervasive since the 19th century, but especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Americans are unique as the first US population to experience cancer as the leading cause of death. Asian Americans are disproportionately affected by cancers because of infectious origins and have the highest rates of lung cancer among never-smoking women. The infinitesimal proportion of the National Institutes of Health's budget compared with experiencing the highest percentage increases of any US racial population more than 3 decades highlights the dearth of focused research among Asian Americans. Recognizing the heterogeneity of Asian Americans and that disaggregated data are critical for accurately characterizing distinct ethnic groups, focusing on the impact of racism and COVID-19 on cancer disparities, and focusing and prioritizing funding resources are necessary steps forward for achieving health equity for Asian Americans.

Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training's legacy. The first 5 years.

The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) is the first special populations network for Asian Americans on a national basis and includes collaborating organizations from Boston, New York, Houston, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Sacramento (where it is headquartered at the University of California, Davis). NCI funding of AANCART in 2000 brought together investigators and leaders from 9 cities across 6 states to establish an infrastructure for addressing cancer awareness, research, and training. Since 2000, AANCART has conducted needs assessments, held community awareness activities and trainings, trained trainees, sponsored National Asian American Cancer Control Academies, and produced presentations, publications, and grants. All specific aims have been attained, including the establishment of an infrastructure to promote Asian American cancer awareness, research, and training in 4 targeted regions; the establishment of partnerships to promote accrual to clinical trials, training, and pilot studies; and the formulation and successful implementation of grant-funded research to reduce the cancer burden among Asian Americans. AANCART's first 5 years have increased cancer awareness, trained special populations scientists, and advanced the field of Asian American cancer control research. Cancer 2006. (c) 2006 American Cancer Society.