The American Cancer Society put out a first-of-its-kind report last week, an inaugural publication of cancer facts and figures solely about Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

According to the report, the highest concentration of Asian Americans is in Hawaiʻi, representing nearly 60% of the state population.

“In this case, we’re breaking them apart by ethnic group because we know that Asian Americans especially are a very heterogenous group made up of Chinese people, and Asian Indian people, and Japanese people, and Korean people,” said Rebecca Siegel, one of the authors of the report.

“The reason that it’s so important to look at separate ethnic groups is because when we aggregate those data, we lose sight of disparities. And in order to address disparities, we have to know that they exist,” she added.

The report said that Asian Americans have a 40% lower overall cancer death rate than white people.

“Because Asian Americans in general have low smoking and obesity, it does make sense that they have lower overall cancer mortality,” Siegel told HPR. “Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death because it’s quite fatal. And so when you have low rates of lung cancer, that’s going to have a large influence on that disparity.”

One troubling takeaway: Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders die from preventable cancers up to three times more often than white people. For example, cervical cancer death rates are two-and-a-half times higher.

Siegel said smoking and obesity, which have higher rates among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, are associated with 12 different cancers.

This interview aired on The Conversation on May 6, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.