Cancer and American Indians/Alaska Natives

American Indian/Alaska Native men and women generally have lower cancer rates than the non-Hispanic white population. However, disparities still exist in certain types of cancer.

From 2001-2005, American Indian/Alaska Native men were almost twice as likely to have liver & IBD cancer as non-Hispanic White men.
American Indian/Alaska Native men are 1.8 times as likely to have stomach cancer as non-Hispanic White men, and are over twice as likely to die from the same disease.
American Indian/Alaska Native women are 2.4 times more likely to have, and to die from, liver & IBD cancer, as compared to non-Hispanic White women.
American Indian/Alaska Native women are 40% more likely to have kidney/renal pelvis cancer as non-Hispanic White women.

At a glance – New Cases:

**New Cancer Cases per 100,000 – Men (2005)**
Cancer	All Men	American Indian Men	Non-Hispanic White Men	American Indian/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
All Sites	510.1	368.8	538.0	0.7
Prostate	147.1	69.5	145.3	0.5

**New Cancer Cases per 100,000 – Women (2005)**
Cancer	All Women	American Indian Women	Non-Hispanic White Women	American Indian/Non- Hispanic White Ratio
All Sites	396.7	348.7	430.1	0.8
Breast	121.5	97.2	133.6	0.7

Source: CDC, 2008. Health United States, 2008. Table 52.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus08.pdf [PDF | 12.2MB]

At a glance – Top Cancer Sites for American Indians (2001-2005):

**Cancer Incidence Rates per 100,000 – Men**
Cancer	All Men	American Indian Men	Non-Hispanic White Men	American Indian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
All Sites	549.3	336.6	568.3	0.6
Stomach	11.3	16.8	9.3	1.8
Liver & IBD*	9.9	14.4	7.3	2.0
Kidney & Renal Pelvis	18.3	19.5	18.8	1.0

At a glance – Top Cancer Sites for American Indians (2001-2005):

**Cancer Incidence Rates per 100,000 – Women**
Cancer	All Women	American Indian Women	Non-Hispanic White Women	American Indian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
All Sites	411.0	296.9	439.7	0.7
Stomach	5.5	7.7	4.0	1.9
Liver & IBD*	3.5	6.3	2.6	2.4
Kidney & Renal Pelvis	9.2	12.7	9.3	1.4

*IBD = Intrahepatic Bile Duct
Source: NCI 2008. Seer Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2005. Tables I-24 and I-25, to XXIV-10.
http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2005/results_merged/topic_race_ethnicity.pdf [PDF | 1.2MB]

At a glance – 5 Year Survival Rate:
Not available at this time.

At a glance – Death Rate:

**Cancer Death Rates per 100,000 – Men (2001-2005)**
Cancer	American Indian Men	Non-Hispanic White Men	American Indian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
All Sites	190.0	235.6	0.8
Stomach	9.9	4.7	2.1
Kidney & Renal Pelvis	9.3	6.2	1.5
Liver & IBD*	10.6	6.3	1.7

**Cancer Death Rates per 100,000 – Women (2001-2005)**
Cancer	American Indian Women	Non-Hispanic White Women	American Indian/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
All Sites	142.0	163.0	0.9
Stomach	5.2	2.3	2.3
Cervical	3.7	2.2	1.7
Liver & IBD*	6.6	2.7	2.4
Kidney & Renal Pelvis	4.3	2.8	1.5

*IBD = Intrahepatic Bile Duct
Source: NCI 2008. Seer Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2005. Tables I-27 and I-28
http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2005/results_merged/topic_race_ethnicity.pdf [PDF | 1.2MB]

At a Glance – Screening:

Breast Cancer

**Percent of women age 40 and over who had a mammogram within the past 2 years, 2005 (age-adjusted)**
American Indian/Alaska Native Women	Non-Hispanic White Women	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
67.1	68.2	1.0

Source: 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Tables 1A_a and 1A_b.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

Cervical Cancer

**Percent of women age 18 and over who had a Pap smear within the past 3 years, 2005 (age-adjusted)**
American Indian/Alaska Native Women	Non-Hispanic White Women	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
71.2	79.1	0.9

Source: 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Tables 3a and 3b.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

Colon Cancer

**Percent of men and women age 50 and over who report they ever received a colonoscopy, 2005 (age-adjusted)**
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
32.3	52.9	0.6

Source: 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Table 6a and 6b.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

**Percent of men and women age 50 and over who report they had a fecal occult blood test within the past 2 years, 2005 (age-adjusted)**
American Indian/Alaska Native	Non-Hispanic White	American Indian/Alaska Native/Non-Hispanic White Ratio
n/a	17.9	n/a

Source: 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report. Tables 7a and 7b.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr07/index.html

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Content Last Modified: 4/1/2009 3:43:00 PM