The State of Lung Cancer 2025 found that Black individuals in Texas are the least likely racial group to receive surgical treatment. (Courtesy American Cancer Society)
A new report from the American Lung Association is highlighting the lack of treatment and early diagnosis when it comes to lung cancer in Texas, as well as the racial disparity in treatment.
The State of Lung Cancer 2025 found that Black individuals in Texas are the least likely racial group to receive surgical treatment. While the rate of Black people in Texas who are diagnosed with cancer is similar to the national average, the five-year survival rate and the treatment rate are both vastly different from the national average and the rates of white individuals.
Five-year survival rate:
- Black people in Texas: 24.3%
- Black people in the US: 27.1%
- White people in Texas: 26.5%
Rate of those who did not receive treatment:
- Black people in Texas: 29.6%
- Black people in the US: 22.7%
- White people in Texas: 27.3%
What seems to be the cause of these drastically different rates is the public knowledge of the disease and spreading awareness in the community.
“In the Black community, we are taught whatever happens in our home stays in our home,” Houston’s Gwendolyn Jackson told ABC 13. “If we don’t talk about it, how can we end it? How can we help the next generation? If I don’t talk about it, how will my daughter know?”
Jackson has survived cervical cancer and her father dying from lung cancer, as well as having other family members battle cancer. When undergoing treatment, Jackson also found a lot of misconceptions around undergoing clinical trials in the Black community.
“In the African-American community, clinical trials are frowned upon,” she told The Patient Story. “I think it goes back to when they were using African Americans for experiments and being the guinea pigs. In our mind, we still think we are being experimented on. If you tell anybody you’re doing clinical trials, they think you’re being a guinea pig.”
As a way to combat this, the American Cancer Society launched Voices of Black Women last year. The campaign invites Black women who have never been diagnosed with cancer to learn more about Black women’s health.
Per the report, Texas was also found to be below average in:
- Surgery: 16.2% of cases underwent surgical treatment, as opposed to the national rate of 20.7%
- Screening for high-risk: 12% of high-risk patients were screened, as opposed to the national rate of 18.2%
- Five-year survival rate: 26.6% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer were alive after five years, as opposed to the national rate of 29.7%
- Lack of treatment: 28.1% of lung cancer patients did not receive treatment, as opposed to the national rate of 21%
- Early diagnosis: 24.4% of patients were caught at an early stage, as opposed to the national rate of 28.1%
