PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — According to a new study from the American Cancer Society, mortality rates among Black people are on the decline, but they are still higher than other racial and ethnic groups.
According to the ACS, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in Black men and women after heart disease. And it accounts for 18% of all reported deaths in 2022.
Dr. Wayne Frederick, ACS interim chief executive officer, says this year there will be more than 248,000 new cancer diagnoses and over 73,000 cancer deaths among Black people in the United States.
“The most commonly diagnosed cancers will continue to be prostate, about 44% among males; and breast, 34% among females; lung taking up about 10%; and colorectal, accounting for about another 8%,” Frederick said.
The study also finds that Black women are 38% more likely to die from breast cancer than their white counterparts, despite a 5% lower likelihood of getting a breast cancer diagnosis. And Black men have about a 67% higher prostate cancer incidence rate than white men, but are more than twice as likely to die from it.
Frederick says the gaps need to be closed to improve early detection and ensure equitable access to life-saving treatments for the Black community, which is why they are urging lawmakers to protect and increase federal funding for research.
Frederick says it's also important to familiarize yourself with family medical history.
“It's a tough conversation to have, you know, and I think in Black families, I think some of it is pride, some of it is unspoken rules that have been set up, and we have to continue to challenge those norms and to make sure that that conversation is more open and more direct.”
To address ongoing cancer disparities in Black women, last year ACS launched the VOICES of Black Women study. The study is designed to help better understand the multi-level drivers of incidence, mortality, and resilience of cancer and other health conditions among Black women in the U.S., so we can collectively address them. It will be the largest cohort study of
cancer risk and outcomes among Black women in the U.S. For more information and to participate, visit voices.cancer.org.