The African-American Cancer Crisis, Part I: The Problem

Over the past 40 years, increasing numbers of Americans have benefited from cancer prevention, early detection, and improved treatment. But a review of site-specific cancer data from 1950 to the present shows that contemporary African-Americans have the highest age-adjusted rates of cancer incidence and mortality of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. Compared to whites, blacks have significantly higher incidence rates for cancers of the lung, prostate, breast (under age 40), colon, pancreas, esophagus, cervix, larynx, stomach, and multiple myeloma. Blacks have significantly higher mortality rates for cancers of the lung, prostate, breast (all ages), colon, pancreas, esophagus, cervix, uterine corpus, larynx, stomach, and multiple myeloma. Moreover, the gap between whites and blacks is widening dramatically. These startling statistics suggest that cancer researchers and policymakers, and the institutions they represent, may not fully appreciate the black cancer experience.