Racial disparity in cancer mortality is narrowing

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/f-rdi041415.php

Public Release: 15-Apr-2015
Frontiers

Cancer mortality remains significantly elevated among African Americans. Between 2000 and 2010, overall mortality from cancer decreased faster among African American women and men than among Caucasians. If current trends continue, racial disparities in cancer outcomes are expected to narrow further and might disappear over time.

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O'Keefe and colleagues demonstrate that the disparity between African Americans and Caucasians in total cancer mortality decreased by 14.6% (from 16.4 to 14.0%) in women and 31.1% (from 40.2 to 27.7%) in men during this period. This is due to a faster decrease in cancer mortality among African Americans than among Caucasians. Should these trends continue, racial disparities in cancer outcomes would continue to narrow, and might potentially be eliminated over time.

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The progress in cancer outcomes for African Americans seems to be partly driven by increased access to high-quality treatment and surgery, and partly by successful prevention strategies. The latter include helping people to quit smoking; more widespread screening and testing, which allows for earlier diagnosis and raises the probability that treatment will be successful; a decrease in the prescription of hormone replacement therapy (a risk factor for breast cancer) to women in the menopause; and an increase in the prescription of anti-inflammatory drugs that lower the risk of colorectal cancers.

Even if these trends are encouraging, O'Keefe and colleagues warn against over-optimism: "Despite significant gains in overall cancer mortality over this time period, persistent cancer disparities by race exist. (...) Policy solutions that address access to and quality of the health care system are certainly important toward narrowing disparities, but cannot fully redress broader societal inequities at the core of racial and ethnic health disparities."

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