Cancer does not discriminate. Access to care does — and the consequences for Black communities across the country are devastating.
Expanding access to Supportive Cancer Care — a model that treats the whole person, not just the disease — can help provide the level of care and empowerment all people living with cancer deserve, but that is too often missing for communities of color.
Black Americans face greater barriers to quality cancer care and experience worse outcomes. Survival rates are lower for Black Americans than for their white counterparts for nearly every type and stage of cancer. Black men have a 4% higher cancer incidence than white men, but a 16% higher mortality rate. Black women have a 9% lower incidence rate than white women, yet a 10% higher mortality rate.
It should not be this way — and it does not have to be.
Treatment alone is not enough
Continued progress in early detection and advances in chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are critical. But treatment alone cannot close the equity gap.
Expanding access to Supportive Cancer Care can help address disparities by closing gaps Black patients too often face before, during, and after treatment.
Supportive Cancer Care is a comprehensive model that treats the whole person. It connects people living with cancer — and their caregivers — to practical, emotional, and social support alongside clinical treatment. That includes symptom management, counseling, insurance navigation, transportation coordination, and more.
It is one of the most effective tools we have to confront inequities in care and outcomes.
The trust gap is costing lives
As leaders working to advance health equity and improve cancer outcomes in communities of color, we have seen firsthand how systemic inequities compound the challenges of a cancer diagnosis, particularly for Black patients and their families.
We have also seen how mistrust of the medical system can prevent people from seeking care — or from asking for services that meet their unique needs. Too often, delayed detection and delayed treatment follow, leading to worse outcomes.
Expanding Supportive Cancer Care — especially in underserved communities — can help rebuild trust by creating systems that listen to patients, are culturally responsive, include racially equitable care teams, and recognize that every person’s needs evolve throughout treatment.
The evidence is clear
These services are not simply compassionate — they are effective.
Research shows that patients receiving Supportive Cancer Care services are less likely to visit the emergency room and spend fewer days in the hospital. By proactively managing symptoms and side effects, Supportive Cancer Care improves both quality of life and clinical outcomes, while easing the burden on caregivers.
Yet today, only 15% of people living with cancer utilize these services.
That must change.
A national standard — not a privilege
Supportive Cancer Care should be the national standard, regardless of ZIP code, income, or background.
Through our coalition, Together for Supportive Cancer Care, national organizations are working to expand early, equitable access to these services. We are building connections among communities, resources, and expertise, while pushing for systemic change in a health care system that too often leaves people — especially people of color — behind.
Everyone deserves comprehensive, whole-person care.
By expanding Supportive Cancer Care, we can reduce suffering, improve outcomes, and close longstanding equity gaps in cancer treatment.
This February, as we honor Black History Month, policymakers, health systems, and payers must confront these disparities and act.
Supportive Cancer Care must become a right — not a privilege.
Rev. Cynthia Perrilliat is executive director of the Alameda County Collaborative Care Alliance. Sheri Biller is co-founder of the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation.
This story originally appeared here.