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The death of popular “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman from colon cancer at age 43 highlights a fact about the disease that is rarely mentioned in headlines.
African Americans are at higher risk of poorer outcomes associated with this type of cancer, given current screening recommendations that have benefited people age 50 and older, and the incidence of the disease continues to rise in younger people.
African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival rate for colorectal cancer compared to all racial groups, according to the American Cancer Society, which estimates that colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in the United States.
African Americans are also said to be diagnosed more often at a younger age and diagnosed at a later stage.
Boseman was said to have been diagnosed with colon cancer four years ago and had advanced from stage III to stage IV at the time of his death.
The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends colorectal cancer screening beginning at age 50. This June 2016 recommendation has a final research plan that was posted on the site a year ago to investigate whether there is future clinical evidence to support expanding screening to age 40.
The USPSTF’s recommendations are important as federal law requires private insurers and Medicare to cover the tests recommended by the independent panel of experts.
According to the latest report from the American Cancer Society, “Cancer Facts and Figures for African Americans 2019-2021,” colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death among African Americans.
Death rates from this cancer of the large intestine and rectum are said to be 47 percent higher in non-Hispanic black men and 34 percent higher in non-Hispanic black women compared to non-white men and non-Hispanic women. Hispanics.
Reasons include not having received best practices in treatment, as well as lower survival rates at each stage of treatment. The ACS researchers also concluded that “access to care, as indicated by insurance status, accounted for half of the survival disparity in black and white patients under 65 years of age.”
The American College of Gastroenterology, since 2005, has recommended that African Americans at average risk for colorectal cancer begin being screened for the disease at age 45 because of the traditionally higher death rates associated with this population and the better outcomes associated with early detection.
In the past two years, the American Cancer Society has issued a recommendation that people at average risk for colorectal cancer begin screening at age 45.
Screening with a high-sensitivity stool test or structural visual examination, such as a colonoscopy, is recommended with any positive result at the first followed by a colonoscopy.
Most colorectal cancers start as benign, slow-growing growths called polyps that develop in the lining of the colon and can be found and removed during a colonscopy.
While statistics show similar survival rates for African Americans and whites when colorectal cancer is in a localized stage, as well as in clinical trials when similar therapies are given for more advanced stages, survival rates for African Americans in are still the lowest for this cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society report, “Colorectal Cancer Facts and Figures 2020-2022,” the five-year survival rate for all stages of colorectal cancer between 2009 and 2015 for non-Hispanic whites was 66. percent; non-Hispanic blacks, 60 percent; Asians and Pacific Islanders, 68 percent; American Indians and Alaska Natives, 63 percent; and Hispanics, 65 percent.
Related:
‘Black Panther’ and ’42’ star Chadwick Boseman dies of colon cancer at age 43
Oncologist: Early Colorectal Detection Saves Lives
