proportionately less than the proportions of calls from whites. Given the disproportionate incidence of cancer among minority populations, one would hope for appropriately increased numbers of calls from affected groups. For instance, prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates are higher among African-American men than among white men. Compared with white women, African-American women have a lower incidence of breast cancer but higher rates of mortality from breast cancer (American Cancer Society, 1997, 1998). Table 5-2 indicates that treatment topics are addressed much more than are prevention and screening (C. Thomsen, CIS, personal communication, 1998).

NIH provided a list of 888 scientific journal publications related to cancer among minorities and medically underserved populations that have resulted from awards of programs of NIH in 1985. Having neither the actual publications nor their abstracts in hand, it was difficult to tell how much the articles were in fact related to cancer among ethnic minority and medically underserved populations. The committee therefore analyzed only the titles of the articles listed to determine the distribution of publications across racial and ethnic groups and the number of publications related to dissemination. It should be noted that the categorizations may underestimate references to ethnic minority and medically underserved populations in the articles listed.

The committee examined whether the following specific terms actually appeared in the title:

• Multicultural: "race," "racial," "ethnic," "cultural,'' "multicultural"
• Not multicultural: no reference to any such terms at all or clearly indicating only a sample of white, Caucasian, or Anglo individuals.
• African American: "African American," "black."
• Hispanic: "Hispanic," "Latin/Latino/Latina," "Mexican," "Mexican American," or "Puerto Rican."
• Asian/Pacific: "Asian Islander," "Oriental," "Chinese," "Japanese," "Vietnamese," "Hawaiian."
• American Indian/Alaska Native: "Native American," "Alaska Native," "tribal."
• Related to dissemination: "screening," "education," "guidelines," "media," "disseminate/diffuse."

An article was listed in more than one column if its title included more than one appropriate term, for example, "Hispanic" and "American