Cancer is one of the leading causes of death among Asian Americans. A major national objective in Healthy People 2010 is the prevention and early detection of cancer in all racial and ethnic groups. Very few health programs have accommodated the cultural and social needs of ethnic minorities, including Asian Americans and immigrants. To answer the call of Healthy People 2010, Maryland Asian American Cancer Program, based in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., has begun work on reducing cancer disparity for Asian Americans and immigrants since 1999.

The goal of Maryland Asian American Cancer Program is to implement community-based intervention programs that allow the Asian community to improve liver, breast and cervical cancer screening rates through increased knowledge of screening activities, outreach, and accessibility to screening. Important and culturally relevant health knowledge, community empowerment and creative approaches will be incorporated into our intervention programs for the Asian community, including Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. Community-based participatory research methods will be used to recruit hard-to-reach populations and improve program sustainability in the Asian community.

For more information, please visit our program website at www.maacp.org