Helping Latina Cancer Patients Cope

Posted by Rheta Mankin on October 27th, 2015

Cancer is a very hard diagnosis to take no matter how the news is broken or who is on the receiving end. For Latinas, however, healthcare providers may find that their patients have to deal with a host of complications that others may simply not experience. And, with an estimated one in three Latina women likely to experience a diagnosis of cancer at some point in their lifetimes, the need for doctors to be mindful of cultural differences and extra stressing agents is rather high.

To better understand unique stressors facing Latina patients, researchers at the University of South Florida and Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center conducted a study. They wanted to evaluate the stressors Latina women faced during cancer treatments and after to help better target programs to benefit them.

 After surveying a group of Latina cancer patients, researchers uncovered these points:

• Many patients were born outside the country and didn’t necessarily have strong social networks developed within America to help them cope with the news and the treatments that followed it.
• Many participants told researchers they preferred to receive information in Spanish even if they spoke English, but that the information was not always available in this manner.
• Some participants told researchers they had received no detailed information about what to expect, especially in regard to treatment side effects.
• Some patients reported having family stressors, especially since supporting family members, such as their mothers, were in other countries.
• Many patients raised concerns about their ability to cope as mothers while dealing with treatments.
• Most patients told researchers they had not received any information regarding stress management before their treatments began.

Overall the findings show that Latinas may have some extra stressors that go beyond the norm for cancer patients. Often with families far away and language barriers standing in their ways, researchers found that Latina cancer patients would benefit greatly from information tailored specially for them not just in regard to language, but also culture.

About Author

North Texas Cancer Center at Wise, a division of Choice Cancer Care, is now operating as the Cancer Center at Wise Regional and is one of the most renowned cancer treatment centers in Texas.