The 5-year cancer survival rate for African Americans has risen 54% since the 1970s, but continues to be lower than that of whites, according to a report from the American Cancer Society.
Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database show that the 5-year relative survival rate in 2002-2008 was 60% for blacks, 69% for whites, and 68% for all races. Those numbers are all up significantly since 1975-77, when the rates for all cancers were 39% for African Americans, 50% for whites, and 49% for all races, the ACS reported.
The differences between blacks and whites varied among specific cancer sites. In 2002-2008, the 5-year survival for melanoma was 70% for blacks and 93% for whites. For colon cancer, the rate was 55% for blacks and 66% for whites. For kidney and renal pelvis cancer, however, the rates were much closer: 70% for blacks and 72% for whites. The only sites for which African Americans had higher survival rates were the brain (41%, compared with 34%) and the stomach (28%, compared with 27%), the ACS said.
