Special Section: Cancer in Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the US, representing 6.3% of the population (20.0 million/318.7 million) in 2014.1 In contrast to Hispanics, the rapid growth of the Asian American population is driven by immigration as opposed to native births.2 The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) population (1.5 million) is also among the fastestgrowing groups.1, 3 The term Asian refers to people with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent and includes, but is not limited to, Asian Indian, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Pakistani, and Vietnamese.4 The term NHPI refers to people with origins in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.3 According to the US Census, a person may be Asian American or NHPI alone or in combination with other races.3, 4 While Asian Americans and NHPIs are distinct racial groups with very different cancer profiles, unfortunately demographic and health data are usually available only in aggregate. These two groups are collectively referred to as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI), Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), or Asian and Pacific Islander (API). The largest Asian subpopulation in the US is Chinese (23%), followed by Filipino (20%), Asian Indian (18%), Vietnamese (10%), Korean (10%), Japanese (8%), and 2% or less for Pakistani, Cambodian, Hmong, and other groups.4 The largest NHPI subpopulation is Native Hawaiian (43%), followed by Samoan (15%), Guamanian or Chamorro (12%), and Tongan (5%).3 Ten US states are home to 73% of the overall AANHPI population (Figure S1); California has the largest population with 32%, followed by New York (9%), Texas (7%), Hawaii (5%), and New Jersey (5%). Notably, AANHPIs comprise 71% and 15% of the total population in Hawaii and California, respectively. AANHPI populations are generally concentrated in urban areas.