As cancer death rates plunge, clear disparities remain, new report says

Black and American Indian/Alaska Native communities have the highest cancer rates of any racial or ethnic group in the U.S.

Cancer death rates in the U.S. have dropped dramatically in the past 35 years, falling by 35%, according to a report from the American Association for Cancer Research published Wednesday. The decline, which translates to nearly 5 million fewer cancer deaths since 1991, has been driven in large part by increased screening and advances in cancer treatments.

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But the progress has not been seen equally across the country.

“African American communities and American Indian and Alaska Native populations have the highest overall cancer death rates of any U.S. racial or ethnic group, and this means higher incidence and mortality for multiple cancers,” said the chair of the report, Mariana Stern, a professor of clinical population and public health sciences and urology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.