Black and white differences: narrowing the gap in cancer medicine

Excess mortality is a complex problem involving multiple sub-problems including culture, economics, lifestyle, issues related to cancer biology, and access to medical care among other issues. Consideration has to be given to the multiple influences that lead to this discrepancy in survival related to cancer and the increased incidence of certain tumors. Increased availability of state-of-the-art cancer treatment to the population as a whole will upgrade the level of care by those that participate in clinical trials; the physicians and finally even those patients who are not entered into the trials. Upgrading the access to information about prevention and control of cancer is of equal importance. There are those tumors with possible biological explanations for increases in cancer incidence in the Black population, in particular, multiple myeloma and prostate cancer. There are tumors which are increasing in incidence in this population with no explanation but which must relate to biological factors.