This keynote confronts one of the most urgent—and often overlooked—drivers of Latino men’s cancer disparities: the lack of a culturally responsive healthcare workforce equipped to meet their needs. Leaders in medicine, advocacy, and community health trace how early-life experiences, educational barriers, and cultural expectations intersect with clinical realities, shaping when and how Latino men access care. The session underscores how early brain development, toxic stress, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) lay foundations that affect health behaviors, cancer risk, and trust in medical systems well into adulthood.

Speakers explore the steep challenges Latino students face across the medical education pipeline, the consequences of inadequate representation in oncology and mental health fields, and the rising need for clinicians who understand cultural norms around masculinity, stigma, and silence. The program highlights emerging research on prostate cancer disparities, vaping risks among youth, and innovative care models designed to meet Latino men where they are—whether through community partnerships, culturally informed counseling, or digital solutions like telehealth and MiSalud.

Key Takeaways:
• How ACEs, early childhood environments, and brain development shape lifelong health trajectories
• Why workforce shortages and cultural disconnects deepen cancer inequities for Latino men
• The role of prevention, mental health support, and trust-building in improving outcomes
• Digital and community-based models expanding access to culturally competent care
• Strategies to recruit, retain, and support Latino clinicians and researchers across the pipeline

Together, these insights offer a blueprint for a more equitable future—one in which Latino men are supported from childhood through clinical care, and are no longer left behind in cancer prevention, treatment, or survivorship.

Speakers include Elena Rios, MD, MSPH, MACP (National Hispanic Medical Association, National Hispanic Health Foundation); Cristhian Gutierrez Huerta, sixth-year MD/PhD student (Latino Medical Student Association); Wendy Johansson, co-founder (MiSalud Health); Pat Levitt, PhD (Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles); Eric J. Small, MD (UCSF Prostate Cancer Program, American Society of Clinical Oncology, ASCO); Francisco Cartujano-Barrera, MD (University of Rochester); and Javier Rosario, LCSW, QS, OSW-C (Blood Cancer United, formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, LLS).