Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government
Email

Cancer Health Disparities

NCI defines cancer health disparities as adverse differences between population groups in a wide range of cancer measures including incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, survivorship and quality of life after cancer treatment, burden of cancer or related health conditions, screening rates, and stage at diagnosis. 

Complex and interrelated factors contribute to the observed cancer disparities, including access to healthcare, differences in diet and lifestyle, ancestry-related risk factors, persistent co-morbidities, and chronic stress exposure. An increasing number of studies demonstrate that even when socioeconomic and access to care factors are accounted for, incidence and mortality gaps persist between populations for some cancer types, suggesting a role for biological contributors. Advances in genomics and other molecular technologies are improving our understanding of how biological differences among population groups contribute to health disparities and how biological factors interact with other potentially relevant factors, such as diet.

University of Hawai‘i 
Lung & Breast
 

 

  • Reviewed:

If you would like to reproduce some or all of this content, see Reuse of NCI Information for guidance about copyright and permissions. In the case of permitted digital reproduction, please credit the National Cancer Institute as the source and link to the original NCI product using the original product's title; e.g., “Cancer Health Disparities was originally published by the National Cancer Institute.”

Email