health
defendernetwork.com
SEPTEMBER 18 | 2014 | DEFENDER
1B
Defender Special Edition
Most common
cancers among Blacks
Cancer taking toll on Blacks By MARILYN MARSHALL Defender
C
ancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease, and its impact on Blacks is especially troubling. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 2 Black men and 1 in 3 Black women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. The lifetime probability of dying from cancer is about 1 in 4 for Black men and 1 in 5 for Black women. Blacks also have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S. for most cancers. Dr. Larkin Strong, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Disparities Research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said while death rates among Blacks for all cancers combined have been decreasing since the 1990s, there remains a much higher death rate for Blacks than for whites. “For all cancers combined, the death rate is approximately 25 percent higher for AfricanAmericans than whites,” Strong said.
“The racial disparity has narrowed overall, but it still persists, and for certain cancers, such as colorectal cancer in men and women and breast cancer in women, it has actually widened over time. For breast cancer in particular, this has occurred despite a lower incidence of breast cancer in African-American women compared to white women.” Strong listed reasons for the racial disparity. “Complex factors are believed to contribute to disparities in both cancer incidence and death, and in general are believed to stem largely from socioeconomic factors rather than biological ones,” she said. “Socioeconomic status and a lack of health care coverage, which may affect access to care and screening behavior, play an important role. African-Americans are more likely than whites to be diagnosed at a later, more advanced stage of disease, at which point the disease is harder to treat and treatments tend to be less effective.” Strong said some research studies have observed racial differences in cancer outcomes even after accounting for socioeconomic factors and access to care. “Even with access to healthcare, there are
differences in quality,” she said. “High-quality care should be safe, timely, effective, efficient, patient-centered, and equitable. “Research has found that African-American women experience unequal access to improvements in breast cancer treatment and AfricanAmerican men are less likely to get aggressive therapy and are less likely to receive intense observation when prescribed watchful waiting for prostate cancer.” Strong said in addition, differences in social and physical environments can affect health outcomes because they represent the conditions in which people live, work, play, and interact with others. “For example, we know there are differences in access to health-promoting resources by level of neighborhood socioeconomic status such that lower income neighborhoods may have fewer safe places to be active, limited or no access to healthy foods, and limited or no access to health care and other important resources,” she said. “All of these can affect the extent to which individuals are able to engage in healthy behaviors, which ultimately are associated with the risk of developing and surviving cancer.”
Cancer is defined as a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death. Cancer is caused by both external factors (tobacco, infectious organisms, poor nutrition, chemicals and radiation) and internal factors (inherited genetic mutations, hormones, immune conditions and mutations that occur from metabolism). Here are the most common cancers among Blacks in the area of estimated new cases. The four most common cancers – breast, prostate, colorectal and lung – account for more than half of all cancer cases among Blacks. Males 1. Prostate 2. Lung & bronchus 3. Colorectum 4. Kidney 5. Liver & intrahepatic bile duct 6. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 7. Pancreas 8. Oral cavity & pharynx 9. Urinary bladder 10. Leukemia Females 1. Breast 2. Lung & bronchus 3. Colorectum 4. Uterine corpus 5. Thyroid 6. Kidney 7. Pancreas 8. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 9. Myeloma 10. Uterine cervix Source: American Cancer Society
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