Ensuring equitable access to cancer care for Black populations

Black and immigrant populations are disproportionately underrepresented in regular screening for cancer. Race-based data from Canada are minimally-available, but research from the United States and Europe has shown that the lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer is much higher among Black people compared to white people and Black people who do get the disease tend to have more aggressive tumors and to present at a later stage.

On this episode, Drs Omole and Bigham speak with Kikachukwu Otiono, lead author of an analysis in CMAJ titled, Prostate cancer screening in Black men in Canada: a case for risk-stratified care.  Ms. Otiono is a final-year medical student at McMaster University in Hamilton. She argues that Black patients should be understood to be at a potentially higher risk for developing prostate cancer and physicians should screen them earlier than guidelines currently recommend, based on evidence from other jurisdictions.

They also speak with Dr. Doreen Ezeife, the author of another analysis in CMAJ entitled, Ensuring equitable access to cancer care for Black patients in Canada. Dr. Ezeife describes the barriers to receiving optimal cancer care for Black patients in Canada and discusses the steps that can be taken to ensure more equitable access.  Dr. Ezeife also makes the case for the collection of race-based data in Canada to improve understanding of the challenges that minority populations face in accessing medical care.

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