Concerns about family duties, costs drive breast cancer treatment decisions for minority patients
Connecting patients with social workers and resources can improve outcomes, says UCI Health expert
September 05, 2024
IN THE NEWS: A recent survey of almost 3 million U.S. breast cancer patients in the National Cancer Database found that most people who decline treatment are Black, Asian, Native American and other minorities.
Sora Tanjasiri, PhD, associate director of Cancer Health Disparities and Community Engagement at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, spoke to Verywell Health about the factors that drive care decisions among women of Asian descent. She was not involved in the study.
One factor is concern about how treatment will affect their family duties.
“We see a lot of worry about how the cancer and then the treatment will compromise their abilities to fill their roles in their families. Asian Americans are more likely to agree to surgery, but there are a lot of concerns about the side effects of chemotherapy. They worry about fatigue, loss of time, and the impact it has on their role as a wife or mother.”
Another issue is cost. Patients of all backgrounds can struggle to keep up with prescriptions, copays and deductibles associated with cancer treatment.
Tanjasiri says efforts to improve cancer outcomes among minority patients nationally includes connecting them with social workers who can help them access needed resources and support.
Tanjasiri, who also holds a master’s in Public Health, is a professor of health, society and behavior at the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health. Her research interests are cancer health disparities, cancer prevention, breast and cervical cancer early detection, and community-based participatory research. She currently leads a health disparities and risk factors and risk factors that contribute to cancer among Asian Americans. To be eligible, participants must be between ages 40 to 75 without a cancer diagnosis. Interested Orange County residents should email Tanjasiri at tanjasir@hs.uci.edu.
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