African Americans Get More Cancer

African Americans get cancer more frequently than whites and that higher cancer rate is a key factor in the fact that African Americans have a significantly shorter life expectancy. African American men live, on average, almost 1 ½ years less than white men because of cancer and African women lose almost a full year.

According to Mitchell D. Wong, MD, professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, "This highlights the importance of (cancer) prevention — it's where most of the efforts should be."

The study also showed that alongside African Americans’ higher rate of cancer, the fact that they are often diagnosed later in the disease and do not survive as often also lowers their life expectancy. And while white women get breast cancer more often than African American women, white women survive the disease more often.