By Carol DeSantis, MPH

In conjunction with Black History Month, the American Cancer Society has released Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans, statistics published every 2 years. The 2013 issue reveals encouraging cancer trends for African Americans, as well as areas where significant disparities remain or are growing. Cancer disparities, or health inequity, are caused by a number of societal problems that result in greater suffering and more people dying from cancer.

Death rates drop, but inequity remains

The great news is that overall cancer death rates have steadily decreased for African American men and women. In fact, the most recent data show that death rates dropped faster for African American men than men in any other racial or ethnic group. That's caused the disparity in cancer death rates between African American and white men to shrink considerably. Cancer death rates among African American women are declining at a similar rate as those of white women. 

Despite these declines, however, death rates for all cancers combined remain 33% higher in black men and 16% higher in black women, compared to white men and women. African American men also have higher death rates for most of the major cancer sites (including lung, prostate, colon/rectum, liver, pancreas, and others). Notably, the higher overall cancer death rate in African American women compared to white women occurs despite lower incidence rates for all cancers combined and for breast and lung cancer.

For African American men, the drop in cancer death rates is mostly due to decreases in lung cancer; other smoking-related cancers like oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, and kidney; and prostate cancer. Remarkably, the disparity in lung cancer death rates among black and white men has been cut in half for men overall, and has been eliminated in younger adults (ages 20-39). This progress is mostly due to the fact that more African American men are quitting smoking, compared to white men. Although African American men have historically higher smoking rates compared to white men, over the last decade smoking rates have become more similar. In addition, smoking rates are lower among African American than white high school students. It is believed that if current smoking trends persist, racial differences in lung cancer death rates will be eliminated in the next 40 to 50 years. More...

By Tim Byers, MD, MPH

There are many definitions of health disparities, but my favorite is disparities are differences that should not exist.  This definition reflects the social injustice in how some races and ethnicities suffer more from cancer than others.   

I like this definition of disparities (or health inequity, as many people are calling it) because it can motivate us to fix the problem - the social, economic, cultural, and political barriers that keep some racial and ethnic minorities from getting  cancer prevention, early detection, and state-of-the-art cancer treatment.  This obviously can be harmful to racial and ethnic minorities.

But this definition is also a problem. It can cause us to focus so much on the differences that should not exist (the social and economic inequalities) that we ignore  factors driving racial and ethnic differences that may actually have a positive influence on people's risk of developing or dying from cancer.  Why is that important? More...

Hispanics have lower cancer screening rates; are diagnosed with cancer at later stages

By Rebecca Siegel, MPH

A new Cancer Facts & Figures for Hispanics/Latinos has been released in conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month. This publication is updated every 3 years and is a resource for current information about cancer among Hispanics. But you may be wondering why we produce a 35-page report devoted solely to cancer statistics for Hispanics.

For 60 years the American Cancer Society's Research department has promoted cancer prevention and control by providing cancer data in a user-friendly format called Cancer Facts & Figures. Over the years, new Facts & Figures publications have been developed to highlight a particular cancer type or a specific population. In 2000, to answer the increasing demand for more in-depth information on cancer in the growing Hispanic community, the inaugural Cancer Facts & Figures for Hispanics/Latinos was introduced.

Hispanics Fastest-Growing Minority in US

Promoting cancer prevention and control in the Hispanic community is more important than ever because Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority population in the United States. As we learned from the 2010 census conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 16% of Americans, 50.5 million people, identify themselves as Hispanic. The 43% increase in the Hispanic population over the past decade -- compared to a 10% increase in the total population -- accounted for more than half of the overall population growth. By 2050, approximately 30% of all Americans will be Hispanic, which means that more and more new cancer patients will be Hispanic. More...

By Alvaro Carrascal, MD, MPH

These days we hear a lot about health disparities, cancer disparities, health equity, etc. What is this all about? And why do these terms seem to be more discussed now?

MedlinePlus, the National Institutes of Health's website for patients, describes health disparities as "differences between groups of people. These differences can affect how frequently a disease affects a group, how many people get sick, or how often the disease causes death."

For the World Health Organization (WHO), health equity is "the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health among population groups defined socially, economically, demographically or geographically."

Essentially, health equity is about everyone getting a fair shake when it comes to health and healthcare. More...

By Angelina Esparza, MPH, RN

I frequently ask myself: "How can we reach the American Cancer Society goal of saving 1,000 lives per day, when so many people suffer and die from cancer due to disparities in health care?"

Cancer health disparities are complex and caused by persistent societal problems that result in greater suffering and more people dying from cancer.

We know issues of health equity are particularly pronounced among racial and ethnic populations, such as Latinos, African Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. Though April is recognized as National Minority Health Month, and the third week in April is National Minority Cancer Awareness Week, our efforts to end health disparities and save more lives are happening year-round. More...