Abstract IA31: Collaboration to address cancer health disparities among Asian Americans and Latinos in Orange County, CA
Authors: Tanjasiri Sora P. , Lee Cevadne 
Published: September 2020

Introduction: Orange County (OC) is the third most populated county in California, and the primary catchment area for the University of California, Irvine’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (CFCCC). With nearly 3.2 million residents over a urban/suburban geographic area of nearly 950 square miles, the county is home to the second-largest population of Latinos (nearly 1.1 million) in California, and the largest population of Vietnamese (over 170,000) in the US. While breast, lung and colorectal cancers are the top overall causes of cancer incidence and mortality in OC, respectively, our catchment area also includes unique cancers among Latinos (e.g., liver), Asian Pacific Islanders (e.g., liver and stomach), and Whites (e.g., skin/melanoma).

Methods: Since launching CFCCC’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement in August 2018, our staff has undertaken an exhaustive needs assessment and focused our educational activities on strengthening the infrastructure of community partners to meet the prevalent and unique cancer needs of our communities. Based upon the definition that community engagement “…refers to values, strategies, and actions that support authentic partnerships, including mutual respect …, power sharing and equity; mutual benefit… and flexibility in pursuing goals, methods and time frames to fit the … capacities of communities” (Jones et al., 2007), we have intentionally pursued collaborations that allow CFCCC to enhance rather than compete with community organizations and health systems.

Results: Data from n=18 key informant interviews and the California Cancer Registry found that the top catchment area priorities to be increasing cancer screening rates, reducing cultural cancer stigmas, and collaborations that facilitate access to cancer care for low-income populations. CFCCC collaborated on the launch of three large-scale capacity-building cancer education collaborations for skin screening targeting the overall OC population; for Vietnamese Hepatitis B screening and prevention; and for breast, cervical, colorecta,l and liver cancer screenings among Latinos and Asian Americans.

Conclusions: These efforts demonstrate the power of community engagement to rapidly catalyze and create unique community-based efforts that strengthen capacities and infrastructures and promote best practices in cancer prevention and early detection designed to decrease cancer incidence and/or mortality in the communities we serve. Future plans include understanding and addressing unique cancer prevention (e.g., tobacco), best practices to achieving cancer health equity, and co-survivor needs.

Citation Format: Sora P. Tanjasiri, Cevadne Lee. Collaboration to address cancer health disparities among Asian Americans and Latinos in Orange County, CA [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr IA31.