Black Americans are still more likely to develop and die from colon cancer than whites Offering Black patients better quality cancer screening and follow-up could narrow those disparities, new research shows Better screening is only part of the solution, however WEDNESDAY, July 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Black Americans are almost a third more likely to die from colon cancer than their white peers, and one key to closing that divide could be better cancer screening, a new report finds. That means getting Black Americans quality colonoscopies and other forms of screening, but also making sure they're followed up after their test results come in. "Our study shows that it's not enough to just get everyone screened; the quality of care during screening and follow-up must also be similar for Black and white adults," explained study lead author Oguzhan Alagoz .
He's a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The findings were published July 24 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. As Alagoz' team noted, compared to whites, Black Americans are still 23% more prone to receiving a colon cancer diagnosis and about 31% more likely to die from the disease.
Some of this disparity had been blamed on lower rates of recommended colon cancer screening among Black patients versus whites. However, over the past two decades that gap has closed. For example, in 2005, one study found that 52% of white Americans said they were up to date o.