Death rates among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders cancer patients is on the decline, but not in all categories, the Ophthalmology Advisor reports.

Overall cancer death rates fell 1.5% between 1999 and 2020 despite more than 305,000 AAPI individuals dying from cancer during that time.

The death rate among men dropped 1.8% and 1.1% among women.

Cancer, however, remains the leading cause of death among Asian Americans and the second leading cause of death among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, according to The American Journal of Managed Care.

“In this study, we evaluated cancer-specific mortality trends over 2 decades to comprehensively assess the burden of cancer among Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals,” wrote the researchers of the study. “We aimed to broadly describe these trends both overall and by sex, age, and geographic variations across a wide range of cancer types, thereby informing more targeted clinical and public health interventions to address disparities in cancer mortality.”

Mortality among AAPI women with uterine cancer rose 2.5% and 1.4% among women with brain and central nervous system cancer.

Men ages 45-54 saw a 1.3% increase in colorectal cancer.

Researchers emphasize more studies need to be done and warn their findings are based on death certificates which they say are prone to errors.

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