About Us

The Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training (AANCART) established in 2000 is privileged to be the National Cancer Institute’s newly designated National Center for Reducing Asian American Cancer Health Disparities.

AANCART’s focus is on reducing the unique, unusual, and unnecessary cancer burden affecting Asian Americans.  We are unique in being the only U.S. racial/ethnic population who experiences cancer as the leading cause of death; our cancer burden is unusual in that the cancers that disproportionately affect us are both attributable to infectious agents (e.g., viral-borne hepatitis leading to liver cancer) as well as increasing rates of cancers of chronic origin (e.g., breast).  At the same time, our cancer burden is to a certain extent, unnecessary, especially those related to tobacco use. 

Our mission is to reduce cancer health disparities by conducting community-based participatory education, training, and research by, for, and with Asian Americans.
 

AANCART serves Asian Americans in the following regions of the United States: Sacramento, CA (which also serves as the National AANCART Headquarters at UC Davis Cancer Center); San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA; and Honolulu, HI.  As such, we are able to reach approximately one-third of all Asian Americans.  During the past ten years we have focused specifically on assessing and reducing cancer risks among Americans of Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Korean, and Vietnamese ancestry.