Alexandre Chan, President and Board Member of The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC), shared on LinkedIn:
“I’ve moved many times in my life, and crossed countries more than once (still unsure how I pulled them off), it makes me think about what that experience must be like for cancer survivors – especially young adults, who are already trying to build a career, manage their finances, and hold their family life together.
Our MASCC Disparities Committee just published a scoping review on the supportive care needs of immigrant AYA cancer survivors.
Most important finding:
A migration background was linked to a nearly six-fold higher risk of poor mental health. And up to 32% of immigrant survivors had poor understanding of the host country’s language – which 2x their risk of unmet needs across all care domains.
The bigger problem is that survivorship research tends to fold migration into broad racial or ethnic categories. When we do that, the migratory experience itself disappears – and so do the language, financial, and legal barriers that come with it.
As we learn to improve health equity, there are really many blind spots, and this is one that we should not miss.”
Title: Beyond race and ethnicity: a scoping review of supportive care needs and barriers for immigrant AYA cancer survivors
Authors: Ana Cardeña-Gutiérrez, Mary Tanay, Paula Rodríguez-Hernáez, Changchuan Jiang, Nicolas H. Hart, Enrique Soto-Perez-de-Celis, Alexandre Chan.
Other articles from Alexandre Chan on OncoDaily.