Ethnic groups in the U.S. more at risk of colorectal cancer

A new study has found that people of Hispanic, black and other U.S. ethnic groups have a 10 to 60 percent greater risk of being diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer, and a 20 to 30 percent higher risk of dying from the disease compared to non-Hispanic whites.

Investigators at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, reviewed data from the federal Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program, and compared colorectal cancer cases and death among people from 18 different racial and ethnic groups.

The researchers apparently found that blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders and Hispanics were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer.

Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics, they say, face a greater risk of dying from colorectal cancer compared to non-Hispanic whites, while Asians and Pacific Islanders were at a lower risk.

However within these broad racial categories there were variations.

Among Asians and Pacific Islanders, for example, the risk of stage IV colorectal cancer and, or death was lower for Americans of Chinese, Japanese and Indian or Pakistani descent but higher for Filipino Americans and Hawaiians, compared to non-Hispanic whites.

Among Hispanics, the risk of stage IV colorectal cancer and, or death was similar for Cubans and Puerto Ricans, but higher for Mexicans and South and Central Americans, compared to non-Hispanic whites.

The researchers say that they observed numerous differences in the risks of advanced-stage colorectal cancer and mortality across individuals in different Asian and Pacific Islander and Hispanic subgroups.

This, they say suggests that experts need to take these variations into account when they evaluate cancer risk in minority populations.

The study will be published in the August 1 issue of the journal Cancer.