The American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2000-2001 is Now Available

American Cancer Society
Tuesday, 24 October 2000

This publication provides estimates of new cancer cases and cancer deaths in the African American population for the upcoming year, and statistics on cancer incidence, mortality, and five-year survival. In addition, it includes sections on cancer risk factors for African American adults and high school students, such as tobacco use, physical activity, and the use of cancer screening examinations.

Highlights of Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2000-2001

- The incidence rate of newly diagnosed cancers among African Americans decreased from 1993-1997, reversing a 20-year increasing trend, and the death rate for all cancers combined decreased from 1991-1997, reversing a 30-year trend.

- Despite this progress, the incidence rate for all cancers combined among African-American men remains 27% higher and the death rate remains 45% higher than among white men in 1997; the cancer death rate for African-American women was 22% higher than for white women.

- The prostate cancer incidence rate among African-American men is 60% higher than the rate in white men, and the prostate cancer death rate is more than twice as high among African Americans than any other racial/ethnic group. African-American women continue to have a higher death rate from breast cancer than white women despite lower breast cancer incidence rates.

- Five-year relative survival rates remain poorer for African Americans than for whites for each of the four most common cancers, breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate.

- The prevalence of current smoking remains higher among adult African-American men than among adult white men, and there have been considerable increases in smoking prevalence among African- American high school students of both genders during the 1990s.

- Nearly 40% of African-American women and more than a quarter of African-American men report no leisure time physical activity.

- Obesity is a risk factor for several cancers. By 1998, 64% of African-American women were overweight, and 32% were characterized as obese. The increasing trend of obesity among African Americans continues to move away from the HHS Healthy People 2010 obesity goal of only 15%.

- In 1987 only 19% of African-American women over the age of 50 reported having a mammogram within the past three years. By 1997, 76.1% reported having a mammogram within the past two years. However, participation remains very low for colorectal cancer screening among African Americans.

Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2000-2001 will be available on the American Cancer Society's website (www.cancer.org) later this month. Please direct questions or requests for interviews to the American Cancer Society's National Media Office at 212-382-2169.

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org