To reduce cancer’s toll in under-served populations, both the University of Virginia Cancer Center and VCU’s Massey Cancer Center are beginning surveys of people who they say are too often left out.
“And those include people from rural areas, low income areas, younger persons, ethnic minorities, non-white persons these are often people we don’t hear from or people who don’t respond to our surveys as much as others,” said Roger Anderson of UVA’s Department of Public Health Sciences.
Ninety-four localities encompassing the entire state will be included, using phone calls and mailings and social media. He says access to information and medical care is critical to stop the progression of cancer, which has unusually higher rates in these areas.
“Such as lung cancer which is high in Southwest Virginia, colon cancer and rectal cancer which is also high in southside and southwest, skin cancer, melanoma, which is high in the western part of the Commonwealth and later-stage breast cancer, which is high in several areas of our catchment area.”
The surveys are set to begin in the coming weeks.