Cancer data aggregation masks high risks for Native Hawaiian and Asian American groups

A report from the American Cancer Society reveals that aggregating cancer statistics for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations masks significant health disparities. By analyzing data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program from 2000 to 2022, researchers identified wide variations in incidence and survival rates across 11 distinct ethnic groups.

Native Hawaiian people exhibited the highest overall cancer incidence at 474.5 per 100,000, which is 1.5 times higher than the rate for the combined Asian American and NHPI population. Specifically, Native Hawaiian women have the highest breast cancer incidence rate in the United States, running 27 percent above the rate for White women. Native Hawaiian and Samoan women also face significantly higher risks of uterine corpus cancer compared to other groups.

Other findings highlight specific risks among Asian American groups, such as high rates of liver and stomach cancer among Vietnamese and Korean populations. The study concludes that using disaggregated data is essential for clinicians and health systems to effectively target cancer prevention, outreach, and resource allocation, as aggregated data can lead to certain high-risk populations being treated as low priority.