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Pride Month: LGBTQ+ Patients with Cancer
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) community, also referred to as sexual minorities, represents a growing and medically underserved population in the United States (Fredriksen-Goldsen, Kim, Barkan, Muraco, & Hoy-Ellis, 2013). In 2016, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) identified the LGBTQ+ community as a "health disparity population," citing growing evidence showing a higher burden of certain diseases, such as cancer, among this group.
A long history of LGBTQ+ bias in the healthcare system continues to be a main systemic barrier to cancer care and treatment. For example, gay and bisexual men are about twenty times as likely as heterosexual men to develop anal cancer due to the lack of screening for anal cancer, fear, and homophobia in the healthcare system (Patel et al., 2018). Additionally, other studies have shown that lesbian and bisexual women may be at increased risk for breast, cervical, and ovarian cancer compared to heterosexual women due to the lack of trust, discrimination, and a lack of inclusiveness, which contributes to late-stage cancer diagnoses (Margolies & Brown, 2019) (Quinn et al., 2015).
Due to the lack of data about sexual orientation or gender identity in the national cancer registries, there is still not enough literature about cancer in the LGBTQ+ community. Therefore, it is essential to understand how to close these gaps in healthcare. In addition, a better understanding of the barriers and facilitators to LGBTQ+ populations' cancer screening behavior can lead to early detection and identification of factors associated with such at-risk groups. Therefore, enabling public health initiatives to assess patient's lack of knowledge about cancer screening and treatment and providing culturally sensitive healthcare can lead to improved health outcomes for the LGBTQ+ population (Haviland, Swette, Kelechi, & Mueller, 2020) (Fredriksen-Goldsen, Kim, Barkan, Muraco, & Hoy-Ellis, 2013).
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