Drops in smoking may have helped drive cancer death rates down among black men during the last decade, but they are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, according to a new analysis

Between 2005 and 2009, researchers found that about 288 black men died from cancer out of every 100,000, compared to about 217 white men. Among women, those numbers were about 181 blacks per 100,000, and 155 whites per 100,000. The gap between cancer death rates narrowed the most between black and white men during the last decade, according to the researchers. Over that time, the cancer death rate for black men fell by 2.4% every year, compared to 1.7% for white men. For women, however, death rates fell equally between blacks and whites over the last decade at about 1.5%. The researchers also found that black women are 16% more likely to die from cancer even though they are 6% less likely to get cancer.