Cancer Mortality among Asians and Pacific Islanders in New York City, 2001–2010

Abstract

Asians and Pacific Islanders’ (APIs) leading cause of death is cancer. We compared APIs’ age-adjusted cancer mortality rates to other racial/ethnic groups and by API subgroup (i.e., Chinese, Koreans, Asian Indians, and Filipinos) using New York City (NYC) Mortality data and Census Bureau population estimates for 2001–2010. While other racial/ethnic groups’ overall cancer mortality rates declined in NYC during the last decade, APIs remained stable. APIs overall had the lowest mortality rates for more common cancer types (i.e., lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate), but the highest mortality rates for certain less common cancers (i.e., nasopharyngeal, stomach, and liver). Chinese New Yorkers’ lung cancer death rates were very high compared to other APIs and comparable to non-Hispanic whites (47.1/100,000 versus 49.5/100,000, resp.). Chinese men had much higher nasopharyngeal cancer mortality rates (4.5/100,000 versus 0.3/100,000 for non-Hispanic whites). Korean men had the highest liver and stomach cancer mortality rates (25.3/100,000 and 27.7/100,000, resp., versus 7.9/100,000 and 6.0/100,000 for non-Hispanic whites). Analysis of cancer rates by API subgroup provides the detailed information needed to plan cancer prevention efforts. These findings warrant consideration of targeted cancer mortality prevention efforts for affected subgroups, including hepatitis vaccination, screening, and treatment; smoking cessation; and cancer screening.