Cancer disclosure, stigma and identity: Racial differences among older adult, cancer survivors

Abstract

This research examines cancer disclosure among older (60+), long-term (5+) survivors, comparing Black survivors with white survivors. 1 ““Black” and “African-American” are used interchangeably throughout this article. “Black” is capitalized because “Blacks, like Asians, Latinos, and other ‘minorities’, constitute a specific cultural group and, as such, require denotation as a proper noun. By the same token, ‘white’ is not a proper noun since whites do not constitute a specific cultural group” (Crenshaw, K. 1990, p. 1241, citing [ [34] MacKinnon C. Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State. An Agenda for Theory, Signs. 1982; 7: 515-544 Google Scholar ], p. 516). It also examines racial differences in cancer-related stigma and the importance of identifying as a cancer survivor and how these, in turn, are related to the likelihood of disclosing their cancer history to family and friends.