Health Disparities

The National Cancer Institute has designated reducing health disparities as a special challenge. The Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) health disparities mission is to monitor the differential burden of cancer among Americans and promote and conduct research that identifies and addresses the economic, social, cultural, psychological, behavioral, and biological mechanisms contributing to these disparities across the cancer control continuum and throughout the human lifespan.

Data and Statistics

• Health Disparities Calculator (HD*Calc)
• National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS) and the Linked SEER-NLMS Database
• Statistics by Race/Ethnicity

Research & Collaboration

• Health Disparities Interest Group
• Native American Initiatives

Monographs

• Selected Comparisons of Measures of Health Disparities: A Review Using Databases Relevant to Healthy People 2010 Cancer-Related Objectives (2007)
• Methods for Measuring Cancer Disparities: A Review Using Data Relevant to Healthy People 2010 Cancer-Related Objectives (2005)

NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 28 percent of the US population. SEER coverage includes 26 percent of African Americans, 41 percent of Hispanics, 43 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives, 54 percent of Asians, and 71 percent of Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders.