SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) applauds and endorses the recommendations for hepatitis B testing recently announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC)

“Hepatitis B-induced liver cancer is the greatest cancer health disparity for Asian Americans,” said Moon Chen, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine, UC Davis and AANCART’s Principal Investigator. The highest rates of new cases of liver cancer occur among Laotian, including Hmong (79.4 per 100,000), Vietnamese (55.5), Cambodian (49.1), and Korean (35.9) men, 5-12 times higher than among non-Hispanic White men (6.7).

The National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities and the National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities are currently funding research grants to AANCART investigators to understand how to reduce this highly significant cancer health disparity.

The new recommendations to test all Asian American immigrants and their children will lead to earlier detection of chronic hepatitis B, leading to treatment and monitoring that will decrease morbidity and mortality. “These recommendations will help reduce deaths related to liver cancer,” explained Tung Nguyen, M.D., Medical Director of the NIH-funded “Liver Cancer Control Interventions for Asian Americans” program project, “but we need to ensure that there are adequate resources to educate Asian Americans and their healthcare providers about these recommendations and to provide testing services and follow-up treatment for those with chronic hepatitis B.” Drs. Chen and Nguyen also agree that Asian Americans who do not have hepatitis B immunity should also get the hepatitis B vaccine, the best way to stop the spread of hepatitis B.

AANCART is focused on addressing cancer-related issues among more than five million Asian Americans in California, Seattle, WA, and Hawaii. The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness Research and Training (AANCART) is funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (U01 CA114640) and “Liver Cancer Control Interventions for Asian Americans” is jointly funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (P01 CA109091-01A1).

For further information on AANCART and the cancer health disparities affecting Asian Americans, visit www.aancart.org or http://www.aancart.org/mediacoverage/may2008api.pdf. The CDC’s recommendations are posted on http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5708.pdf. The contents of this media release is solely the responsibility of Dr. Moon Chen, Jr., Principal Investigator for both AANCART and “Liver Cancer Control Interventions for Asian Americans” and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.