Vietnamese Singer Hopes to Change Asian-American Perceptions About Breast Cancer

Asian American and Pacific Islander women have a lower rate of breast cancer than white women. Studies show these woman also have the lowest breast cancer screening rates, compared to other ethnic groups. KPCC's Susan Valot says a well-known Vietnamese singer is trying to change that.

Susan Valot: Vietnamese singer YLan Le walks into a restaurant in the heart of "Little Saigon." She's wearing leopard print boots and looks far less than her age of 50. She asks for a table in the corner.

[Sound of YLan speaking in Vietnamese]

Valot: YLan is known as a "diva" in the Vietnamese community. She's like the Barbra Streisand of the Vietnamese. She's well-known and respected. But her private life came crashing down five years ago. She discovered a lump during a breast self-exam just two months after her annual check-up.

YLan: One day I woke up in the morning and I talked to myself and said, "Well, I remember my doctor's been telling me this for years, but I never tried. So let's try today and see if – and try to make it as a habit." So the first time, I examined myself, and I found it. It was a cyst and very small, just like a pea.

Valot: It was an aggressive cancerous tumor, but it was caught early. YLan underwent two surgeries to remove it and went through two months of radiation... all while she continued to tour across the U.S. She kept her diagnosis a secret. YLan finally shared her story in March, nearly five years after being diagnosed. Since unveiling she battled breast cancer, the singer's Fountain Valley phone has been ringing off the hook with...

YLan: Many, many others coming out and saying, "Oh, I have breast cancer for that many years," or, "I just got it. I feel so ashamed. I never wanted to talk about this." Myself, I did. I did too for myself. I felt ashamed.

Valot: And at the time, YLan was on center stage. She was worried about what would happen if the community found out she had cancer.

YLan: You know, when I'm up stage and people look at me and, and I bet that from now, every time I wear something revealing and then they will look and look, you know. Those are just very sensitive to a woman and especially Vietnamese women. And we are women. We know that the beauty God create and give us – one of the things there, they're very important.

[Music: YLan singing at benefit concert]

Valot: YLan's still on stage – now cancer free. She used a benefit concert in Little Saigon to help launch her new Sweet Dreams Foundation. The "diva" wants to use it to spread the word to other Vietnamese women in the U.S. about breast cancer and early detection.

Jacqueline Tran is with the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance. It's a group trying to close the gap when it comes to early detection of cervical and breast cancer in the Vietnamese community. Tran says it's been tough to get the message out, because breast cancer is still a taboo subject among Vietnamese-Americans.

Jacqueline Tran: And I think a lot of that has to do with the issue of privacy and family privacy when it comes to certain health issues. We don't air our dirty laundry, you know. And not that cancer is dirty laundry, but it's one of those private, personal things that's going on, that until you're ready, you really don't share with people. And usually when you share is when you've overcome the barrier.

Valot: YLan's oncologist, Dr. An Nguyen, agrees early detection's a big problem among Vietnamese-Americans.

Dr. An Nguyen: Whereas, you know, some women in different communities may come to their primary doctor when they have a very small mass in their breast, oftentimes in the Vietnamese American community, they will kind of ignore the problem until the mass is quite large.

Valot: So Dr. Nguyen says he sees a lot of advanced-stage breast cancer. Some Vietnamese-American women are ashamed because they think it's "karma" – that somehow they brought the disease upon themselves. Others are in denial. They busy themselves with taking care of their families and won't come into the doctor. Many are scared that cancer means death. But community health advocate Jacqueline Tran says YLan's message breaks that image.

Tran: I think what it helps to do is for folks to realize that cancer does happen, that it happens to people like you and me, happens to our movie stars, happens to our rock stars – that all of us can be impacted. Yet at the same time, it also gives the message of hope and survivorship.

[Music from benefit concert: YLan singing the French song "La Vie en Rose" in Vietnamese]

Valot: A message that comes across strong in any language.