The report indicated that blacks have higher cancer death rates because they are more likely to smoke, to be obese, to avoid exercise, and are less likely to get screening tests such as colonoscopies and mammograms.

Although cancer rates continue to be higher among African-Americans, the report showed that the incidence of newly diagnosed cancers among blacks declined between 1991 and 1997, reversing a 30-year trend. "Despite this progress, the incidence rate for all cancers combined among African-American men remains 27 percent higher and the death rate remains 45 percent higher than among white men in 1997," the report said. "The cancer death rate for African-American women was 22 percent higher than for white women."

According to the report, black men have a 60 percent higher rate of prostate cancer than white men, and their death rate from prostate cancer is double that of white men.

"African-American women continue to have a higher death rate from breast cancer than white women despite lower breast cancer incidence rates," the American Cancer Society added. "Five-year relative survival rates remain poorer for African-Americans than for whites for each of the four most common cancers: breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate."