About Time
As the COVID-19 pandemic shines a light on health disparities, efforts to find new ways to reduce them get a boost.
Lung cancer is responsible for the greatest number of cancer deaths each year in the United States and in North Carolina, and African Americans carry a disproportionate share of this burden. African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer and more likely to die from it, compared to White people.
Stomach cancer is not as common, but the disparities are worse. Nationwide, people of color are twice as likely to develop stomach cancer. In seven counties served by the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI), the incidence of stomach cancer among African Americans is three to four times that of Whites. Black people are also 2 1/2 times as likely to die of stomach cancer than Whites, which is the biggest mortality disparity of any cancer in the United States.
A group of researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) is working to change those statistics, and a new federal grant is giving them a big boost.
