Cancer mortality rates are declining among African Americans, but death rates are still the highest of any racial group, according to the latest study from the American Cancer Society.
The organization’s latest report, Cancer Statistics for African American and Black People, 2025, which was published this month in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, shows that from 1991 to 2022, death rates among Black men decreased by 49%, while death rates for Black women fell 33%.
Researchers say the decrease can be attributed to a change in lifestyle and behavioral patterns, such as a massive decline in cigarette smoking among African American teens, earlier detection and advancement in cancer treatments.
“Yet, this population persistently experiences a much higher mortality burden than other racial and ethnic groups for many cancers,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and senior author of the report. “We must reverse course.”
The report also shows that African American women have a 38% higher risk of dying of breast cancer than white women despite a 5% lower risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. Also, endometrial cancer incidences in Black women are rising by 2% every year.
For Black men, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the country. It is also the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in St. Louis County. The report found that African American males are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than white men.
Researchers used population-based science from the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to aggregate data on risk factors and cancer incidence, mortality, survival and screening for African Americans. Black people make up about 14% of the country’s population and are the third-largest racial and ethnic group behind white and Hispanic people.
The data shows that survival for almost every stage of cancer is lower in Black people than in whites. Cervical, melanoma and uterine corpus cancers have the largest survival rate gaps.
"The stark inequities in incidence and survival for many cancers underscore the urgent need for targeted research and interventions,” said Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, interim chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “This is a critical opportunity for the scientific, clinical, and policy-making community to come together to drive meaningful change. Together, we must inform strategies to close these gaps, improve early detection, and ensure equitable access to life-saving treatments for the Black community.”
A prostate cancer diagnosis, grim disparities and lack of conversation around prostate cancer and other cancers that directly affect African American men in the St. Louis region propelled Mellve Shahid Sr. to start the Empowerment Network, a nonprofit that emotionally and mentally supports predominantly Black men through cancer.
“Men now understand the conversation around this disease because the Empowerment Network helped to change the conversation around prostate cancer, and we change the conversation by engaging in conversation,” Shahid said.
Shahid created the organization in 2008, one year after he was diagnosed with stage 2 prostate cancer. The goal was to use his journey through cancer to help save the lives of Black men living with cancer and to better inform them about the disease.
“There was such a great fear around just saying the word prostate. Men were afraid to even use that term, and I think so many men have died in the past because their families didn't even know they had prostate cancer,” he said. “We do our sons a great disservice when we don't talk about it, because your son and your grandson are at a higher risk now because you are a cancer survivor.”
When Shahid was diagnosed nearly 20 years ago with prostate cancer, he said there were no support groups for Black men experiencing any type of cancer. Most of the groups he found were based in hospital settings, which he said is not the best place for Black men to find solace.
“Hospitals are just not somewhere that we want to go and get support,” he said. “Not to say that our hospitals don't have great support groups, but that's a hospital just not somewhere that I want to go back to after I leave my doctor's appointments.”
Now, his group is consoling and informing hundreds of men about prostate cancer and other cancers. The organization hosts programs about cancer, visits hospitals to talk with families about the disease, engages in prayer calls with people who are living with the disease and prepares care packages for single men who have just completed treatment and need support at home.
Shahid hopes the services and programs that the Empowerment Network provides will introduce a level of trust and awareness in the medical field, especially now that there are advanced cancer treatments available for men that Shahid wants people to take advantage of. Historically, the health community has not had a good relationship with African Americans because many experienced racism at the hands of medical professionals. This has caused a tremendous amount of distrust with doctors.
“We got to bridge that gap between the community and the world of medicine, and when we do that, we will save lives and you will see a more healthier community,” he said.
Shahid’s cancer has returned inside his pelvis. He plans to undergo radiation treatments soon. Because of Shahid’s cancer recurrence, he is aggressively putting out information about new machines and interventions that he is trying to help fight his diagnosis. He said doctors and their staff do not clearly explain care plans with men of color and his educational sessions throughout his second battle with cancer could help.
“Even though I'm going through a second journey with disease, I’m educating my survivors on things like the 5T MRI machine, the PET scan machines … a rib biopsy, the average cancer survivor doesn't know about any of that,” Shahid said. “I'm using my story and my journey of reoccurrence to still educate the community around this disease.”
