**2. Racial, cultural and ethnic disparities in cancer care**

Global health disparities is a critical area of concern and intensifies the issue of cancer in developed and developing countries.(Jones, Chilton et al. 2006; Kawahara, Masui et al. 2010) Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide with mortality rates spiking in low- and middle- income countries.(Linkov, Padilla et al. 2010) Medical care alone cannot adequately improve health related quality of life or reduce cancer disparities without also addressing where and how people live.(Subban, Terwoord et al. 2008) As countries become more culturally diverse, taking action to train the future cancer workforce to better serve their changing communities is a top priority. (Dogra, Reitmanova et al. 2010) Public & private health systems need to move beyond identifying problems to development of novel interventions and their implementation. Additionally, genuine efforts need to be made to offer culturally & linguistically appropriate services to the world's most vulnerable populations.

Addressing global cancer health disparities requires a holistic solution to a complex and interdependent set of patient, provider, and health system factors. Through educational interventions, projects can aim to position the health care system to effectively serve patients and communities of color. The state of the cancer workforce displays a grim picture, with several shortages including oncologists, pharmacists and nurses. These shortages can be characterized as supply and demand determinants; the demand for oncologists – the lifetime probability of developing cancer is 1 in every 2 men and 1 in every 3 women - is expected to exceed supply by 25%-30% by 2020. Against this backdrop, bolstering the basic cancer care competency knowledge and skills of medical, nursing and pharmacy students is essential as an evidence-based prevention priority and sustainable capacity for cancer care.(C-Change 2008; Smith, Tyus et al. 2009)

Cancer health disparities in low- and middle- income countries provides a uniquely rich platform for educational interventions as reflected by the large number of physicians, nurses and pharmacists serving resource-challenged and underserved populations. By "mainstreaming" cultural competence-embedded cancer care education into health professions curricula, a competent cadre of health care providers produced as a result of revised competencies and cancer education curricula has a "ready practice setting" to implement those skills in a fashion that is measurable.
