Cancer Disparities ACS Research Highlights

Every 3 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) publishes the report Cancer Facts & Figures for African American/Black People and its accompanying scientific paper in the ACS peer-reviewed journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

These publications provide the most recent data on cancer newly diagnosed cases (incidence), mortality, survival, screening, and risk factors for Black people in the United States.

For most types of cancers, Black people have the highest death rate and shortest survival rate of any racial/ethnic group. This is due to disproportionate numbers of Black people living below the national poverty level and underlying systemic discrimination that reduce access to cancer screening, which is care that allows for early detection, and appropriate, high-quality treatment. In 2022, there will be an estimated 224,080 new cancer cases and 73,680 cancer deaths among Black people.

Facts about Black Women & Cancer 

• Black women have 8% lower incidence but 12% higher mortality than White women.
  
• Black women have 41% higher breast cancer mortality than White women despite lower breast cancer incidence.
• Black women are less likely than White women to be diagnosed with localized-stage breast cancer (57% versus 67%) and lower survival for every stage of disease (e.g., 20% vs 30% for distant stage).
• Breast cancer surpassed lung cancer in 2019 to become the leading cause of cancer death among Black women, whereas lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer death among Black men.

Facts about Black Men & Cancer 

• Black men have 6% higher cancer incidence than White men but 19% higher cancer mortality. 
• Black men are 73% more likely than White men to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than twice as likely to die from the disease.

For Spanish-speaking readers >>Datos y Estadísticas sobre el Cáncer entre los Hispanos/Latinos

Every 3 years, Kimberly Miller, MPH, a research scientist at the American Cancer Society (ACS), publishes the report Cancer Facts & Figures for Hispanics/Latinos (Spanish edition available Winter 2021) and also is the lead author for a scientific paper published in the ACS peer-reviewed journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 

These publications provide updated cancer information on cancer occurrence and risk factors in the Hispanic/Latino population, as well as information about prevention, early detection, and treatment.

For Hispanic people, compared to non-Hispanic White people:

• Poverty rates in 2019 were more than double—16% compared to 7%. Socioeconomic disparities among Hispanic people are strongly linked to long-standing systemic racism, which prevents Hispanic people from receiving equitable access to high quality cancer care for prevention, early detection, and treatment.   
• The percentage of people without health insurance was nearly triple—26% compared to 9% among ages 18 to 64 years during 2017 to 2018. In fact, the Hispanic/Latino population has the highest percentage of people without health insurance of any major racial/ethnic group in the US.
• Incidence rates were lower for the four most common cancers (female breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate). This reflects the lower risk for these cancers among foreign-born people, who account for about a third of the Hispanic population. However, as population growth is now driven by births, not immigration, the cancer burden in Hispanic people is expected to increase.
• Incidence rates were higher for infection-related cancers—stomach, liver, and cervical—as well as for gallbladder cancer. Differences in cervical cancer are largely due to less access to HPV screening  and higher prevalence of HPV infection. 
• Disparities in 5-year survival rates were largest for melanoma. About 91% of Whites live at least 5 years after being diagnosed with melanoma, compared to only 78% of Hispanics.

Hispanic/Latino people born in the US may have cancer incidence rates more like non-Hispanic white people—or even higher. This is partly due to US acculturation—the adoption of attitudes, values, customs, beliefs, and behaviors of people in the US. When combined with socioeconomic disparities and systemic racism, acculturation leads to a higher burden of cancer risk factors, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in US-born Hispanic people.

Certain Hispanic/Latino subpopulations have substantially varying cancer rates and risk factors. For example, lung cancer incidence rates are higher in Cuban men than in other Hispanic groups combined due to higher historical smoking rates.

Hispanic/Latino children and adolescents have higher rates of leukemia than all other racial and ethnic groups in the US. They have nearly double the rate in Black children, who experience the lowest rates.