Racial Gap in Colon Cancer Deaths Is Widening

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Colon and rectal cancer death rates are now nearly 50 percent higher in blacks than in whites, according to American Cancer Society research being released Monday.

The gap has been growing since the mid-1970s, when colon cancer death rates for the two racial groups were nearly equal.

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The rate of diagnoses in blacks was about 19 percent higher than it was for whites in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The death rate difference was even more pronounced. Among blacks, there were about 25 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 17 per 100,000 in whites—a 48 percent difference.

The two groups’ death rates were similar until the 1980s when colon cancer began to kill blacks at a higher rate than whites.

Researchers say it’s not clear why black mortality jumped in the 1980s, but it started a gap that continued to widen even after the black rate began to fall again.

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The screening rate for Hispanics is an even-lower 32 percent, but the death rate for Hispanics—fewer than 13 per 100,000—is lower than it is for whites.

That paradox is not unique to colon cancer: Poorly insured Hispanics have fared better than whites and blacks in several measures of cancer and heart disease.

“It’s a mystery,” said Dr. Daniel Blumenthal, chair of the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine.