New Data Unmasks America’s Riskiest Cancer Group

Tablet displaying cervical cancer information on a desk — Photo: kenary820 / Shutterstock

Native Hawaiian women now carry the highest breast cancer incidence of any group of women tracked in the United States, once researchers stopped lumping them in with a much larger Asian American population.

Story Snapshot

New American Cancer Society data show Native Hawaiian women have 27% higher breast cancer incidence than White women.
Combining Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander data into one category had been hiding this gap for years.
Separate research shows Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people face 2 to 3 times higher death rates from several preventable cancers.
Health researchers say breaking down broad race categories into specific groups is now essential for spotting real risk.

A Hidden Number Finally Comes Into Focus

The American Cancer Society released the finding on August 27, in a report built from newly separated cancer data. For decades, government and hospital records grouped Asian Americans together with Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders under one broad label. That single category made the group look average. Pulling Native Hawaiian women out of that mix revealed something very different: the highest breast cancer incidence rate in the country.

The 27% gap compared to White women is not a small statistical blip. It points to a health pattern that has gone largely unnoticed because of how the data was collected and reported. Researchers at the American Cancer Society say this is exactly the kind of disparity that broad racial categories are built to miss, since larger populations inside the same label can drown out smaller, harder-hit groups.

Why Combining Groups Made The Problem Invisible

Asian Americans make up a much bigger population than Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders nationwide. When statisticians blend the two groups into one number, the larger population’s outcomes dominate the average. A 2023 federal cancer study found this exact effect with mortality data, showing that overall cancer death rates were 39% higher in Pacific Islander men and 73% higher in Pacific Islander women compared to Asian American peers, once the numbers were split apart.

That same masking effect shows up across other cancers, too. The American Cancer Society’s first disaggregated report in 2024 found Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people are 75% more likely to die from liver cancer than White people, and two to three times more likely to die from cervical, stomach, and endometrial cancers. None of that shows up clearly when the data stays combined with the much larger Asian American category.

What Separated Data Reveals Across Other Cancers

Breast cancer is not an isolated case. A National Cancer Database analysis of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer found Native Hawaiian patients faced notably higher odds of being diagnosed at a later stage than White patients, alongside similar patterns for Hmong and Laotian women once ethnic groups were separated out. Federal researchers found similar splits in HPV-linked cancers, with cervical cancer rates varying sharply by specific ethnicity rather than tracking evenly across one broad label.

Gastric cancer follows the same script. One national database review found Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander men face double the risk of death from stomach cancer compared to White men, while women in these groups face a 2.5-fold higher risk. Each of these findings only became visible after researchers stopped treating a hugely diverse population as one statistical unit.

The Push For More Precise Public Health Data

The American Cancer Society has published a biennial report on cancer disparities since 2021, and its 2025 edition kept expanding how finely it breaks down race, ethnicity, and income data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made a similar case, noting that Asian and Pacific Islander populations are culturally, geographically, and linguistically distinct, and that subgroup analysis offers real insight that broad categories cannot.

This is a common-sense correction, not a political statement. Accurate health data should describe real communities, not administrative shortcuts drawn up decades ago. Grouping distinct populations together for convenience has quietly cost families early warnings about real risks. Breaking the categories apart doesn’t divide people; it gives doctors, families, and policymakers the accurate picture they need to act.

Native Hawaiian communities, along with public health advocates, have pushed for years to get this kind of specific data recognized in national reporting. The latest American Cancer Society findings give that push hard numbers to stand on, and they arrive as more researchers across federal agencies and universities reach the same conclusion: broad racial labels can hide the very people who need attention most.