California researchers are leading a nationwide effort to study cancer rates in some Asian American communities with the launch of the ASPIRE Cohort study. The National Cancer Institute funded the study with $12.5 million.
The ASPIRE Cohort study will follow 20,000 Asian Americans over time. Researchers from UC San Francisco, UC Irvine, UC Davis, Cedars-Sinai, and Temple University are involved in launching the study. "Asian Americans are actually the first racial and ethnic group for whom cancer is the leading cause of death," said Scarlett Gomez, a cancer epidemiologist at UC San Francisco.
Lung cancer rates are increasing among Asian Americans. This includes Asian American women who have never smoked. More than half of Asian American women diagnosed with lung cancer are nonsmokers. Smoking rates among Asian Americans are low. Lung cancer incidence has declined across much of the United States. Outdoor air pollution, secondhand smoke, and cooking oil fumes can contribute to lung cancer risk.
Early-onset breast cancer rates are also increasing among Asian American women. "Early onset breast cancer, diagnosed before age 50, is going up the fastest among Asian Americans." Gomez said. Breast cancer rates among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are approaching the rates of non-Hispanic white women. Existing cancer studies often include too few Asian Americans to draw meaningful conclusions about specific ethnic groups.
Asian Americans constitute nearly 8% of the U.S. population. Iona Cheng, a molecular epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, noted variations when separating distinct Asian ethnicities. "When we separate and look at all the distinct Asian ethnicities, we see a wide variation." Cheng said. For example, Filipino women have a higher incidence of thyroid cancer, and stomach cancer occurs more frequently among some Korean and Japanese populations.