Racial gap in cancer deaths as wide as in 1981 - USATODAY.com: Blacks are more likely to develop cancer and die from the disease than any other group, according to a report released today. Black patients also live a shorter time after diagnosis than others.
Death rates have fallen in recent decades for all groups, and the gap between the races has fluctuated over the years. Yet the gap between blacks and whites is just as wide today as it was in 1981, report co-author Ahmedin Jemal says.
Among women, for example, death rates were 14% higher for blacks than whites in 1981. Today, those rates are 16% higher. Death rates are 33% higher among black men than whites, a difference that is almost unchanged since 1981.
Black cancer patients have made some progress in recent years, however. Among men, overall death rates have been falling faster for blacks than whites, mainly because fewer black men are dying from lung and prostate tumors, the report from the American Cancer Society shows.
But blacks tend to be diagnosed at more advanced stages than whites, whose cancers are more often found at earlier, more curable stages. Blacks also are less likely than whites to get high-quality treatment in time to make a difference, says Peter Bach of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who was not involved in the new study.
