Cancer Care

According to the American Cancer Society, the 5-year survival rate for Hispanic/Latinos is relatively the same as non-Hispanic whites for most cancers.

Cancer incidence rates have been monitored in Hispanic populations using cancer registries and compared to those in NHW whites in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, California, Connecticut, and New York City. All have shown remarkably lower incidences of most cancers in Hispanics with the notable exception of cervical cancers in women. In New Mexico Hispanics were found to have lower rates for all cancers except those in the gall bladder, stomach, and cervix.

According to American Cancer Society, for most cancer types, Hispanic people are diagnosed and diet at lower rates than White people (American Cancer Society, 2024). Except for stomach and liver cancer in which Hispanic people experience stomach and liver cancer at roughly double the rate. In addition, Hispanic people have nearly double the rates of gallbladder cancer and acute lymphocytic leukemia.

During the most recent years Hispanic women have experienced an increase of annual incidence rates of uterine corpus cancer by an average of 2.8%.

Cervical Cancer. Because of the very high incidence of cervical cancer among Hispanic/Latino women, special attention to appropriate screening is recommended.

According to the American Cancer Society Hispanic women have 36% higher incidence of cervical cancer as compared to White people (American Cancer Society, 2024).  Latino cancer incidence was the lowest within all age categories from 20 years to over 75, although prostate cancer in Latino men age 75 was higher than non-Hispanic whites of this same age group (American Cancer Society, 2006).

Studies in Florida compared the incidence of cancer between White Hispanic women and Black Hispanic women and their non-Hispanic counterparts in both races. Both white Hispanic and Black Hispanic women had lower cancer incidence rates than their non-Hispanic counterparts with the following exception: White Hispanic women had higher rates of cancer of the liver, gallbladder, and uterine cervix, when compared to NHW women (Trapido, Chen, Davis, Lewis, MacKinnon, & Strait, 1994).