Background: Resolving cancer health disparities continues to befuddle simplistic racial models. The racial groups alluded to in biomedicine, public health, and epidemiology are often profoundly substructured.
Methods: EL and PSNA are computational assisted techniques that focus on microethnic group (MEG) substructure.
Results: Geographical variations in cancer may be due to differences in MEG ancestry or similar environmental exposures to a recognized carcinogen. Examples include breast and prostate cancers in the Chesapeake Bay region and Bight of Biafra biological ancestry, hypertension and stroke in the Carolina Coast region and Central African biological ancestry, and pancreatic cancer in the Mississippi Delta region and dietary/medicinal exposure to safrol from Sassafras albidum.