THURSDAY, Oct. 4, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Hispanics have lower incidence and mortality than non-Hispanic whites for all cancers combined, although there is considerable variability in cancer risk within the U.S. Hispanic population, according to a report published online Oct. 4 in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
Kimberly D. Miller, M.P.H., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues estimated cancer occurrence, risk factors, and screening for Hispanics in the United States; the estimates included contemporary incidence and mortality rates for Puerto Rico for the first time.
The researchers note that in 2018, an estimated 149,100 new cancer cases and 42,700 cancer deaths will occur among Hispanics in the continental United States and Hawaii. Compared with non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics have a 25 percent lower incidence and 30 percent lower mortality rate for all cancers combined, although the rates of infection-related cancers are elevated. Due to variable risk, these aggregated data mask substantial heterogeneity within the Hispanic population. During 2011 to 2015, prostate cancer incidence rates were 60 percent higher in residents in Puerto Rico than in other U.S. Hispanics combined (146.6 versus 91.6 per 100,000) and 44 percent higher than those in non-Hispanic whites (101.7 per 100,000). Among men in Puerto Rico, prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths.
“Efforts to further progress in cancer control among Hispanics in the United States, including Puerto Rico, must consider the substantial differences in cancer risk within this heterogeneous population,” the authors write.
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