Expanding the frontier of Asian American cancer research

The September 2024 special issue of the Asian American Journal of Psychology, “Expanding the Frontier of Asian American Cancer Control and Survivorship Research,” highlights how innovative research is advancing science and informing evidence-based programs to improve cancer-screening behaviors, patient–provider communication, and supportive care across Asian American communities. Several articles in this special issue illustrate the importance of navigation in the context of increasing cancer-screening behaviors (Brecher et al., 2024) and improving cancer care delivery (Chu et al., 2024) for Asian American individuals. Novel approaches to identify and address symptom management and supportive care needs are also described (Kim et al., 2024; Kuo et al., 2024; Tsai et al., 2024). Finally, articles discuss the need for cultural adaptation of cancer survivorship interventions to enhance outcomes (Lui et al., 2024; Tan et al., 2024). Several common themes emerged across the articles, including the limited number of studies and evidence-based interventions that focus on specific Asian ethnic subgroups, the value of cultural adaptation for increasing intervention effectiveness, and the need for dissemination and implementation of rigorously tested programs.

Together, these articles provide a valuable and informative overview of the growing body of research to characterize and address cancer-related disparities and unmet needs across diverse Asian American communities. These studies underscore the necessity of offering culturally tailored cancer care and survivorship interventions to address the unique challenges faced by Asian American patients with cancer. Ultimately the special issue makes a meaningful contribution to inform culturally sensitive approaches that can be utilized successfully to improve mental and physical health outcomes for Asian American individuals across the cancer continuum.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Asian American individuals (Torre et al., 2016), yet research to enhance cancer-preventive behaviors, increase quality of life, and reduce symptom burden has lagged far behind. Thus, the special issue highlights new efforts in cancer control and survivorship to better understand potential contributors to cancer-related disparities in Asian American populations. The issue also emphasizes the multifactorial reasons driving these disparities while calling for greater attention to including Asian American populations in cancer control and survivorship research. 

• Successful cancer control and survivorship interventions require culturally sensitive approaches that are linguistically tailored to meet the specific needs of Asian American communities.
• Culturally appropriate cancer education, combined with navigation support, can increase participation in cancer-screening behaviors among Asian American women.
• Asian American cancer survivors deemed a culturally and linguistically appropriate navigation program acceptable but still faced challenges with completing standard-of-care treatment.
• Cultural communication differences can impact outcomes. As a result, establishing a greater alignment with fundamental principles from Asian-heritage cultures is recommended to enhance cancer care delivery.
• Psychosocial support and symptom management in cancer care remains understudied in Asian American populations. Greater involvement of psychosocial care specialists with cultural expertise is essential for promoting the well-being of Asian American patients with metastatic cancer and their family members. In addition, a larger pipeline of culturally sensitive bilingual mental health specialists is needed to address emotional and supportive care concerns.
• Considerable diversity across Asian American cancer survivors underscores a critical gap in data resources and indicates an urgent need to collect disaggregated data on mental and physical health outcomes in the cancer context.
• Community engagement and partnerships can not only help identify unmet needs and barriers to care but also can facilitate dissemination of evidence-based materials and bridge the gap between health care systems and Asian American communities.
• Advocacy for and greater inclusion of understudied Asian American populations, including those with limited English-language proficiency and lower socioeconomic status, are needed to facilitate systemic changes over time, including those to reduce language and insurance barriers, as well as to increase workforce capacity.

The articles in this special issue reveal the importance of addressing psychosocial and cultural factors that contribute to cancer-related disparities across Asian American populations. In addition, the articles also highlight several practical recommendations:

1. Generating the foundational data currently lacking from disaggregated Asian ethnic subgroups is needed. Most studies to date have focused on the Chinese American population, with relatively few concentrating on Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Japanese American populations and even less on other Asian American populations facing cancer-related risks. Greater attention to these subpopulations is warranted moving forward.
2. Collaborating with community partners to advance cancer control and survivorship research is powerful. Community-engaged research methods can facilitate the effective dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions.
3. Training a larger workforce of culturally sensitive bilingual mental health professionals to address the psychological needs of Asian American patients and their family members is critical. Developing and supporting a pipeline of well-trained staff to provide such support is necessary.

These activities will require a coordinated approach for investing research and training resources to effectively address cancer-related disparities across diverse Asian American populations.

This article is in the Social Psychology and Social Processes topic area.

Brecher, A. C., Handorf, E. A., Tan, Y., Rhee, J., Kim, C., Ma, G. X., & Fang, C. Y. (2024). A community-based cervical cancer education and navigation program for Korean American women. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000324

Chu, J. N., Tsoh, J. Y., Shariff-Marco, S., Allen, L., Oh, D., Kuo, M. C., Wong, C., Bui, H., Chen, J., Truong, A., Wang, K., Hwang, A., Li, F. M., Ma, C., Gomez, S. L., & Nguyen, T. T. (2024). Patient COUNTS: A pilot navigation program for Asian American cancer patients. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 205–212. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000319

Kim, J. H. J., Ahmed, K., Ahn, S.-H., Nguyen, B., Phung, P., Pan, S., Lu, Q., Kagawa Singer, M., & Stanton, A. L. (2024). Healthcare professionals' views of supportive care needs for Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans with metastatic cancer. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 233–245. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000329

Kuo, C. C.-L., Saunders, P. A., Hsiao, H., Hsiao, S. C., Han, T., & Wang, J. H. (2024). Discussion of emotions among newly diagnosed non-Hispanic White and Chinese American patients with breast cancer and their oncologists. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 223–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000325

Lui, F., Chen, Z., Niu, Y., Breitbart, W., Gany, F., & Leng, J. (2024). Developing the meaning-centered program for Chinese Americans with advanced cancer: Applying cultural adaptation frameworks. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 262–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000318

Tan, N. Q. P., Shin, L. J., Maki, K. G., Geng, Y., Volk, R. J., & Lu, Q. (2024). A systematic review of the impact of cancer survivorship interventions with Asian American cancer survivors. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 246–261. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000317

Torre, L. A., Sauer, A. M. G., Chen, M. S., Jr., Kagawa-Singer, M., Jemal, A., & Siegel, R. L. (2016). Cancer statistics for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, 2016: Converging incidence in males and females. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 66(3), 182–202. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21335opens in new window

Tsai, W., Kim, J. H. J., Yeung, N. C. Y., & Lu, Q. (2024). Socioeconomic status, stress, and cancer-related fatigue among Chinese American breast cancer survivors: The mediating roles of sleep. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 213–222. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000330

Qian Lu, PhD, MD, is a professor in the Department of Health Disparities Research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a fellow of APA and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Her work centers on improving the health of populations with limited access to care across the cancer prevention and control continuum through rigorous intervention research, education, training, and meaningful collaborations with communities.

Carolyn Y. Fang, PhD, is associate director of population science and professor in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. She is a fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Her research interests focus on how psychosocial, biobehavioral, and health care access factors influence cancer risk and outcomes.

Jacqueline H. J. Kim, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine and Population Health and Disease Prevention at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and is a member of the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. She has received various early career recognitions, including from the National Cancer Institute, the American Psychosocial Oncology Society, and the Society of Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine. She applies cultural–clinical and health psychology knowledge to identify risk and resilience factors in cancer survivorship and to develop psychosocial interventions that promote well-being, particularly for medically underserved populations with advanced disease.