Roberto Astorga, Hispanic Partnership Program coordinator for the Pacific Region of the Cancer Information Service, reviews with Elizabeth Pratt, Partnership Program manager, a new flip book for explaining breast health to Spanish speakers. (Photo by Clay Eals)

By BRAD BROBERG

Roberto Astorga's first step in his new job is to repeat a previously successful one.

This month, Astorga will produce a ra- dio show focusing on salud (Spanish for "health"), presenting facts about detecting, preventing and treating cancer to Hispanics in what he terms a "culturally relevant" way.

It's all part of a Cancer Information Service effort to reduce cancer's toll on the more than 1 million Latinos living in the CIS's five-state Pacific Region.

Astorga is the Pacific Region office's Hispanic Partnership Program coordinator. The office - part of a National Cancer Institute network that Fred Hutchinson operates under contract - created the position earlier this year after identifying Latinos as a chronically underserved population.

"What we did was a gap analysis of our region," said Elizabeth Pratt, CIS Partnership Program manager. "We learned that Hispanics have a high rate of cancer detected at a late stage. That's a red flag. It means they're not getting in for screening and early detection."

Wealth of experience

Assigned to improve that picture by collaborating with local resources, Astorga brings a wealth of experience to his new job. Before joining CIS, he spent five years as a health educator with Sea Mar Community Health Centers.

"We're excited about Roberto joining us," Pratt said. "We think he's going to help our program a lot."

During Astorga's last three years with Sea Mar, he worked in the Skagit County city of Mount Vernon, addressing cancer and other health issues with his primary audience, the county's large Hispanic community.

Hispanics make up 7.5 percent of the state population, but in Skagit County, where a strong agricultural industry is a major employer, they make up 11.5 percent of the population. Besides 12,000 permanent Hispanic residents, another 3,000 migrant farm workers, most Hispanic, come to Skagit County for the growing season.

Because many Hispanic farm workers don't speak fluent English and move frequently from town to town, traditional avenues of cancer information and services usually bypass them.

"This population doesn't have access, period," Astorga said.

The right medium

A key to reversing that is finding the right medium to deliver the message. For farm workers, that medium is radio, Astorga said.

"Radio is the best way to reach this audience," he said. "It doesn't require the audience to be in one place, like TV."

Workers listen to the radio in their cars as well as on headphones while toiling in the fields or processing plants. "It's very popular," he said.

Astorga ought to know. With Sea Mar in Mount Vernon, he produced, directed and hosted a weekly Spanish-language radio show, "Salud y Comunidad" ("Health and Community"), which aired on KSVR-FM, Mount Vernon's public-radio program.

"When I started the show, I got one to two calls per program," Astorga said. "When I left the program, we couldn't handle the response we got."

Using the show he did for Sea Mar as a model, Astorga is creating a six-part show for CIS. Also airing on KSVR, the show will run 10 a.m.-noon every Tuesday from June 25 through July 30, the peak of the agricultural season in Skagit. Over time, Astorga hopes to air similar shows in other cities in the five-state CIS region.

Astorga will co-host each show with a different health-care professional. The initial show will offer an overview of cancer. Each remaining show will cover diagnosis, screening and prevention of a leading type of cancer: breast, cervical, prostate, colorectal and lung.

In general, the leading cancers occur at the same rate in Hispanics as they do in other populations. However, the mortality rate is often higher, with lack of information about detection, prevention and treatment a major cause.

For example, Hispanic women have lower rates of breast cancer than do white or black women, yet breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among Hispanic women - perhaps because only 38 percent of Hispanic women age 40 and older have regular screening mammograms.

Among Hispanic men, lung cancer is the leading cause of death even though fewer of them smoke than white men. Given the heightened risk, Astorga's show will cover smoking cessation when it discusses lung cancer.

During each show, the hosts will answer questions from callers and also refer them to the 1-800-4-CANCER line's Spanish-language service.

While the content will be based on information from the National Cancer Institute, Astorga also hopes to incorporate a format known as "radio novella" into the show. Popular throughout Latin America, radio novellas are like soap operas that are broadcast one chapter at a time.

Radio novellas

Astorga used materials from the federal Centers for Disease Control to create health-focused radio novellas for his previous radio show, relying on the characters and the plot of each installment to convey the intended message.

"It's an entertaining approach that educates people in a culturally relevant way," he said.

Radio shows are just the first of many outreach and partnership efforts Astorga plans to make.

"One of the things I'd like to do in the near future is work with principal investigators at the Hutchinson Center to encourage more research studies on the Hispanic population," he said. "There is a lack of research involving this population for all health-related topics."

As a member of the Hispanic community, Astorga takes extra pride in his job, especially when it comes to helping migrant farm workers.

"I am committed to improving the living conditions of this population," he said.

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