There are very few places in American life where racial inequality is more evident than in health care, and particularly cancer. At SurvivorNet, it’s our mission to support those in the cancer fight by reporting medical information and sharing inspiring stories of perseverance and survival. But we also know the statistics:
In the United States, African Americans bear a disproportionate share of the cancer burden, with the lowest survival rate of any racial or ethnic group for most cancers. Among men, the overall cancer death rate was 19% higher for blacks than for whites in 2016, according to the American Cancer Society. Among women, African Americans still have a 13% higher chance of death.
Read MoreAnd when diagnosed with breast cancer, a black woman has a shocking 29% higher chance of death, according to the American Cancer Society.
Blackout Tuesday: Celebrity Cancer Survivors
We often share news of well-known people who’ve had cancer — actors, athletes, musicians, and politicians — because their fight raises awareness of mammograms, skin checks, colonoscopies, and the subtle symptoms of ovarian cancer — which has no screening test.
Today, we couldn’t help but notice that our cancer survivors had gone silent.
We saw black squares, instead of their usual posts Many are pausing for Blackout Tuesday, a day to process the grief and conflict brought on by the death of George Floyd. We are not political commentators and we can not solve our country’s broken race relations. But we can — and do — care about all people with cancer.
As news reporters, we cannot overlook this message from the cancer survivors who have chosen to mark today with a black square. So we share their names here:
- Erin Andrews — Cervical Cancer Survivor
- Billy Baldwin and Chynna Phillips, parents of Vance, Cancer Survivor
- Andy Cohen — Melanoma Survivor
- Pat Cleveland — Colon Cancer Survivor
- Sheryl Crow — Breast Cancer Survivor
The rate of prostate cancer in African-American men is 60 percent higher says Dr. Edwin Posadas, Medical Director of the Urologic Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai.
- Shannen Doherty – Breast Cancer Survivor
- Michael Douglas — Throat Cancer Survivor
- Julia Louis Dreyfus — Breast Cancer Survivor
- Bethenny Frankel — Skin Cancer Survivor
- Kuk Harrell — Prostate Cancer SurvivorHugh Jackman – Skin Cancer Survivor
- Daymond John — Thyroid Cancer Survivor
- Elton John — Prostate Cancer Survivor
- Tamra Judge — Melanoma Survivor
- Bret Michael — Skin Cancer Survivor
- Amy Robach — Breast Cancer Survivor
- Robin Roberts — Breast Cancer Survivor
- Maia Shiboutani — Kidney Cancer Survivor
- Amanda Salas — Lymphoma Survivor
- Rita Wilson — Breast Cancer Survivor
As the COVID-19 crisis saps cancer research funding, slows clinical trials, and makes access to cancer treatment and screening centers challenging for all of us, we thought it was only right to draw attention to the fact that, yes, race impacts cancer, too.
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