Racial and ethnic disparities in incidence and mortality for the five most common gastrointestinal cancers in the United States.

Background: Gastrointestinal cancers account for a significant burden of cancers in the United States. We sought to measure relative incidence of and mortality from the five most common gastrointestinal malignancies by race and ethnicity.

Methods: We used data from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Cancer Registry and the National Center for Health Statistics to calculate incidence and mortality rates for colorectal, pancreatic, liver, esophageal, and gastric cancer from 2013 to 2017 (incidence) and 2014 to 2018 (mortality). We then calculated incidence and mortality rate ratios, comparing each racial/ethnic group (non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic) to non-Hispanic White.

Results: Colorectal cancer had highest overall incidence and mortality. When compared to non-Hispanic White individuals, all other racial/ethnic groups had significantly higher incidence of liver and gastric cancer but lower incidence of esophageal cancer. Non-Hispanic Black individuals had higher incidence of colorectal and pancreatic cancer than non-Hispanic White individuals, while Hispanic and non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Island individuals had lower incidence of these two cancers compared to non-Hispanic White individuals. Disparity patterns were similar for mortality.

Conclusions: Liver and gastric cancer have the greatest differences in incidence and mortality by race/ethnicity. Non-Hispanic Black individuals carry the highest burden of gastrointestinal malignancies overall.