Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Month

It is important that we understand the inequities that people from ethnic minority communities can face in cancer care and support.

People in the UK who are from ethnically diverse backgrounds are more likely to get some types of cancer than White people. For example, Black and Asian people are more likely to get gallblader and liver cancer than White people (1).

Black men are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as White men and also twice as likely to die from it (2).

As an overall group, people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in the UK are less likely to get most types of cancer than White people (1), and also less likely to die from most types of cancer (3). Although there are some concerns that rates of cancer could be rising for some groups, and there are ongoing issues with the availability and quality of data around cancer and ethnicity.

Research has shown that people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in England wait longer on average to be diagnosed for several types of cancer (2).

More than 1 in 4 people living with cancer in the UK (29%) have multiple concerns related to cancer areas, but this rises to 34% of people with cancer who are ethnically diverse (4).

In England, people with cancer who are Black or Asian or have mixed or multiple ethnicity are significantly less likely to get support they need with their health and wellbeing while receiving hospital treatment, and face more barriers when it comes to involving their friends or families in their care (5).