Projected Incidence of Cancer Among Pacific Islanders Living in California

Information on cancer health disparities among Pacific Islander populations in the United States and U.S. Jurisdictions is limited. Yet cancer has been identified as the leading cause of death for Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Overcoming the data limitations that limit our ability to measure the health and unmet healthcare needs of Pacific Islanders, this presentation will report findings from a demographic analysis of epidemiological data on the incidence and survival from cancer among Pacific Islanders in California. Using the California Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data from 1988 to 2005, we will describe the distribution of cancer risk, estimate cancer incidence levels and examine cancer incidence among Pacific Islander subgroups in CA. Using the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census data for CA we will calculate intercensal estimates of the Pacific Islander population using the cohort component method. Measures of fertility, mortality and migration will be projected and applied for the calculation of population growth, providing a reasonable estimate of the population denominator needed to calculate crude incidence rates and age-adjusted incidence rates. This analysis will be extended to select Pacific Islander subgroups. The findings provide useful baseline information on the state of cancer among Pacific Islanders living in California and contribute to the national discourse and effort to eliminate cancer health disparities.