Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

“Making Do, As Best As We Can” Cancer In American Samoa: Qualitative Methods And Results, Va'atausili Tofaeono, Tyran Terada, Luana Sue Kaopua, Angela Sy, Luana Yoshikawa

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Purpose/Background: The United Nation outlines a blueprint for addressing social determinants of health (SDOH), reconciling disparities between and within countries. Indigenous people living in Small Island Developing States like the U.S. territories experience health disparities. In American Samoa (AS), SDOH involving political, social, and data limitations provide challenges to in-country research and health services delivery capacity including cancer prevention and treatment. For example, in AS less than 7% of age-eligible adults participated in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, while the Healthy People 2020 target is 70% screened. In 2004 a cancer awareness and service needs assessment in AS funded by the …

Patterned Electro-Spun Fibers Capture Exosomes Produced From Single Cells, Sage Bingaman, Jeffery Chalmers, Ph.D

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Cancer and its curiosities have been researched throughout the scientific community with little results. Several studies have been unable to use a single treatment to cure the cells as each cancerous cell is unique in its molecular coding, and are often immune to different kinds of treatments.

The purpose of the experiment is to determine whether exosomes in cancer cells can communicate with other cells and create an immunity to treatment. There were multiple steps in the process of attaching cells to an electro-spun fiber sheet and analyzing the exosomes captured. The first step was to take increments of 0.4 …