Ethnic groups losing out on cancer care

Members of ethnic minorities who develop cancer are failing to get the care they need because too many doctors believe it is a "white" disease, the Cancer Research Campign said yesterday.

A report commissioned by the Department of Health and the CRC suggests that the problem of cancer in ethnic minorities is not properly recognised by healthcare workers or by the communities themselves. There is a lower uptake of screening services and later reporting of cancer which may lead to lower survival rates than among the majority of the population. Baroness Cumberlege, Health Minister, said the report, in the British Journal of Cancer, set a new agenda for the NHS to focus on. Liz Hunt