An analysis shows that Asian, Black and Mixed-heritage people are much less likely to develop cancer than white people in England.
But there are exceptions to this study, prostate and blood cancer are two to three times more common in black people. The Cancer Research UK study said many cancers are preventable.
Higher obesity rates in Asian, Black and mixed-heritage compared with white primary-age children could lead to a rise in cancers in those groups.
Cancer Research UK’s analysis, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is based on three million cancer cases in England from 2013 to 2017.
It showed “there are differences in cancer rates across different nationalities”, author Dr Katrina Brown, a Cancer Research UK statistician, said.
The chance of acquiring cancer is based on many different factors, including someone’s age and the genes they inherit, but about 40% of cases in the United Kingdom are preventable due to lifestyle choices. And these impacted some groups more than others and created inequalities, CRUK chief executive Michelle Mitchell said.
Equal access to stop-smoking services and advice on how to manage weight and early diagnosis and treatment was essential to improve survival from the disease, she added.
The analysis further found white people in England more than twice as likely to develop skin cancer (melanoma), oesophageal, bladder and lung cancers than Black, Asian or mixed-heritage people.
Skin cancer is more common because white-skinned people are more likely to burn and cause damage to their skin in the sun.
But black people are more prone to develop stomach and liver cancers.
Previous studies suggest there is a genetic explanation for black men being twice as likely to get prostate cancer than white men and three times as likely to develop blood cancer (myeloma). Cancer types linked to infections, such as hepatitis, are more common among some ethnic minorities, which could be why Asian people are more likely to develop liver cancer.
