Cancer data for Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) people are usually combined, hiding vast differences in cancer risk. New disaggregated data analyzed by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) show that Native Hawaiian women have a 27% higher breast cancer incidence than White women, and have the highest rates in the United States when Asian American and NHPI women are not combined.
Disaggregated data break down differences among Asian American and NHPI ethnic groups that would not have been apparent if the data were combined.
These findings were reported in Cancer Statistics for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander People, 2026, which was published by Wagle et al in the journal Cancer.
“Behind aggregated Asian American and NHPI data are populations experiencing some of the highest cancer incidence rates in the country,” said Nikita Wagle, PhD, MBBS, MHA, Principal Scientist, Cancer Surveillance Research at the ACS and lead author of the study. “Korean people have the highest stomach cancer incidence of any racial-ethnic group in the United States Similarly, Vietnamese people have the highest liver cancer incidence, and Samoan women have the highest uterine corpus cancer incidence.”
Key Report Findings
For the study, researchers examined population-based cancer registry data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program, containing information on Asian American and NHPI ethnic groups from 2000 through 2022, to report on cancer incidence and survival.
Key findings include:
- Overall cancer incidence varied by more than twofold across the 11 Asian American and NHPI ethnic groups in the United States.
- Cambodian people had the lowest cancer incidence rate (218.3 per 100,000), and Native Hawaiian people had the highest rate (474.5 per 100,000), which was 1.5 times the rate when Asian American and NHPI people are combined (307.3 per 100,000).
- Female breast cancer incidence is on the rise in almost all Asian American and NHPI ethnic groups, ranging from 1% per year in Native Hawaiian and Filipino women to 3% to 5% per year in Guamanian/Chamorro, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean women. Native Hawaiian women had the highest breast cancer incidence rate among Asian American and NHPI ethnic groups, exceeding that in Asian American and NHPI women combined by 57% and in White women by 27%.
- Colorectal cancer incidence among Native Hawaiian people is 37% higher than among Asian American and NHPI people combined and 11% higher than among White people.
- Among Asian American and NHPI men, prostate cancer incidence is six times higher in Native Hawaiian men, who have the highest rate, than in Laotian men, who have the lowest rate.
“You can’t fix a problem you don’t know is there. Favorable rates in the Asian American and NHPI population as a whole mask the highest national burden for many cancers, including breast and endometrial cancers in women,” said Rebecca Siegel, MPH, Senior Scientific Director, Surveillance Research at the ACS, and senior author of the report. “Especially in these communities, successful interventions must be tailored, not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
“These startling statistics underscore the need for disaggregated data to help reveal disparities across communities and cancer types,” said Lisa A. Lacasse, President of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), ACS’s advocacy affiliate. “We urge lawmakers to support funding and policies that promote timely and accurate collection and publication of disaggregated, demographic data, which will help ensure policy solutions are designed to address each community’s unique needs and reduce the cancer burden for everyone.”
DISCLOSURE: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
