Overview
- The American Association for Cancer Research report finds U.S. cancer death rates have fallen about 35% since 1991, translating to nearly five million fewer deaths and reflecting greater use of screening and better treatments.
- Black and American Indian/Alaska Native people continue to have the highest overall cancer death rates, with Black women facing a 35% higher breast cancer mortality and Black people roughly twice as likely to die from multiple myeloma and cancers of the stomach, prostate and gallbladder.
- Screening uptake lags in non‑white groups with 2023 colonoscopy rates of about 67% for white people versus 53% for Hispanic people and 57% for Asian and American Indian/Alaska Native people, and lower cervical screening in poorer communities.
- Early-onset colorectal cancer is rising fastest in Hispanic adults, with annual increases of about 4.7% for women and 3.7% for men, and cervical cancer incidence and death rates are markedly higher in persistent-poverty counties.
- Policy and coverage trends could weaken progress: Medicaid and ACA enrollment has dropped by more than five million over the past year and proposed federal cuts to NIH and elimination of NIMHD put proven supports like patient navigator programs at risk.