Reducing Health Disparities

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Cancer impacts everyone, but it doesn’t impact everyone equally. We are working to ensure everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer. No one should be disadvantaged in their fight against cancer because of how much money they make, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their disability status, or where they live.

From ensuring greater diversity among clinical trial participants to improving access to quality, affordable health care, we are asking lawmakers to reduce disparities in cancer care by advancing policies that break down existing barriers.

Black women are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women overall

Latest Updates

March 19, 2025
Vermont

Survivors and oncology professionals share their stories with lawmakers to underscore the importance of insurance coverage of cutting-edge biomarker testing

March 19, 2025
Connecticut

Insurance coverage of biomarker testing will reduce health disparities for cancer patients & improve outcomes across broad spectrum of serious disease

March 6, 2025
New Hampshire

Lawmakers asked to reduce barriers to care and reduce prescription related costs

February 13, 2025
National

Today, the Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening for High-risk Insured Men (PSA Screening for HIM) Act was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representatives Neal Dunn, M.D. (R-FL) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) with Representatives Greg Murphy (R-NC) and Troy Carter (D-LA) as cosponsors.

Reducing Health Disparities Resources

Disparities have been described in various domains of cancer research, each issue exists separately and has a different relationship to understanding and addressing disparities in clinical outcomes. The various domains of research disparities are explored in Cancer Research and Disparities: Understanding and Addressing the Issues. 

ACS CAN submitted comments to the National Institute of Health Request for Information: Inviting Comments and Suggestions to Advance and Strengthen Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Biomedical Research Workforce and Advance Health Disparities and Health Equity Research

Our ability to continue to make progress against cancer relies heavily on eliminating the inequities that exist in the prevention and early detection of cancer. This factsheet explores how health outcomes vary across groups, barriers to cancer screenings, and how ACS CAN is taking action.