Here's an explanation of how to interpret the cancer statistics on these pages.

Early Detection

Explained.

Figure 5

The earlier you find cancer the better your chances of survival. Figure 5 shows that on the average, African Americans cancers are typically more advanced, either large in size or spread to distant sites at the time of diagnosis. In figure 5, look at breast cancer for white females; only 6% of breast cancers have spread to other sites at time of diagnosis compared to 9% of African Americans females who have breast cancers spread to other sites at the time of diagnosis

Figure 6

Figure 6 deals with a concept called 5 year survival.  In 1,000 newly diagnosed cancer patient, how many will be alive in 5 years?  Breast Cancers are usually more spread out in African Americans at the time of diagnosis, so the 5 year survival will be lower across the board.