Ethnicity

Ethnicity is a way to group people who share a culture, language, history, traditions, or racial identity. It can affect health outcomes for biological and social reasons.

Blood cancer and ethnicity

Some ethnicities are more likely to develop blood cancer and people from minority ethnic backgrounds repeatedly report poorer experience of blood cancer care across England.

It can be difficult to see differences in blood cancer outcomes by ethnicity across the UK, due to patchy data collection and availability, especially in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The data from our UK Blood Cancer Action Plan suggests that the correlation between ethnicity and blood cancer care experience and being more likely to get blood cancer, do not translate into poorer survival from blood cancer.

• Rates of myeloma are higher among Black African and Black Caribbean men and women
• There are lower rates of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma but higher rates of Hodgkin lymphoma among British South Asians (Indian men and Pakistani men and women).
• Men from white and Black ethnic groups have higher rates of leukaemia than those from the British Asian ethnic group.
• Black African and Black Caribbean men and women develop myeloma on average four years earlier and present with more advanced stages of the illness.

• We'll grow our evidence base on the causes, consequences and best ways to address inequality in blood cancer connected to ethnicity.
• We'll improve data quality, by calling on UK governments, especially in the devolved nations, to ensure the ethnicity of cancer patients is captured appropriately and is made available for analysis across cancer pathways.
• We'll prioritise efforts to address ethnic disparities, such as with our access to clinical trials project.
• We'll ensure more decision makers hear our voice across all four UK nations.
• We'll seek to increase the ethnic diversity of our staff so that our workforce and Involvement Network better reflect the community we serve.

If you’ve faced barriers to diagnosis, treatment or support, or if your care has been exceptional, we’d love to hear from you. Join our Involvement Network to use your lived experience to support our projects and relevant work. Your insights will help shape our work and make sure our strategy delivers real change for everyone affected by blood cancer.