Cedars-Sinai Study Highlights Cancer Disparities in LA County

The LA hospital identified 15 cancer disparities in the county and are designing interventions to address them.

Los Angeles County residents experience varying cancer risks and survival rates based on race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, geographic location and socioeconomic status, according to a new study from Cedars-Sinai Cancer.

Investigators at the Los Angeles hospital identified 15 cancer disparities in the county and are now designing and initiating interventions to address them.

The study, published in Frontiers in Oncology, found that: Latinos have higher rates of some cancers, including liver cancer and late-stage melanoma than non-Latino whites. Rates of breast cancer among Korean women have grown more faster than among other groups. Black people have higher rates of prostate cancer, triple-negative breast cancer and pancreatic cancer. Filipinos have higher rates of thyroid cancer. Self-described LBGTQ+ people have higher rates of "well-known risk factors" for lung cancer and HPV-related cancers (i.e., smoking, low HPV vaccination). Low-income whites have an increasing rate of late-stage melanoma. 

The study is part of a two-year initiative to define and identify Cedars-Sinai's patient mix and develop effective strategies to reduce cancer care disparities.  

Investigators reviewed cancer data from national, statewide and county sources, and created a survey asking county residents about their cancer screening behaviors, medical history and healthcare access. So far, 3,200 people have completed the surveys.

"These surveys help us understand barriers that people in L.A. County face that prevent them from getting screened for cancer," said Zul Surani, director of Community Outreach and Engagement and Operations at the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity at Cedars-Sinai. "By creating relationships with churches, health clinics, nonprofits and other community organizations, we are learning how to help people overcome these barriers." 

For example, investigators discovered that mammography rates among Korean women in L.A. are low and that not having health insurance and not feeling sick were top barriers to getting screened. Their analysis of cancer registry data revealed that L.A. County's Koreatown neighborhood has one of the densest concentrations of late-stage breast cancer in the county. 

"The next step is to increase the inclusion of people who identify with racial and ethnic groups who are underrepresented in cancer clinical trials," said senior author of the study Robert W. Haile, DrPH, MPH, director of the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity and the Cedars-Sinai Chair in Population Health Sciences. "By making our study populations more diverse, we'll have a better understanding of the effectiveness of cancer treatments."