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Significantly falling cancer death rates in the US
In the United States, the number of cancer deaths has declined significantly in recent years, mainly due to improved treatment options, but also related to healthier behaviors such as declining tobacco use. Cancer mortality has fallen by 25 percent since 1991, and by as much as 50 percent in individual cancers.
Each year, the American Cancer Society publishes a recent cancer statistic of the numbers of new diagnoses, deaths, and survival rates among the various cancers. These statistics show that death rates have been steadily declining over the past 20 years. Since peaking in 1991, male and female cancer mortality rates have dropped 25 percent, reports the Amercian Cancer Society (ACS). The current US cancer statistics have been published in the journal "CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians".
In the US, the cancer mortality rate has dropped dramatically in recent decades. (Image: sudok1 / fotolia.com) Prevented 2.1 million cancer deaths
According to the researchers, the rate of new cancer diagnoses has declined by around two percent per year in men over the past few decades, but remained largely stable among women. However, the death rate for men and women has recently fallen by around 1.5 percent annually. Overall, they went back by 25 percent from 1991 to 2014, the experts report. "This decline means that more than 2.1 million deaths could be averted during this period," said the ACS. For the year 2017, the US ACS experts expect a total of 1,688,780 new cancers and 600,920 cancer deaths in 2017.
Gender differences in cancers
Pulmonary, colon, prostate and breast cancers continue to be among the most common causes of cancer death in the United States. Lung cancer alone accounts for one in four cancer deaths, ACS reports. In men, prostate, lung and colon cancer are the most common fatal cancers. In women, breast, lung and colon cancer are the most common cause of cancer death. Breast cancer alone is expected to account for 30 percent of all new cases of cancer among women in 2017, experts say.
Lung cancer continues to decline
Falling rates of new lung cancer cases have continued, according to cancer researchers, mainly because fewer people smoke in the US. According to the experts, the decline in colorectal cancer diagnosis is also related to the increased colonoscopy (colonoscopy), which may already be able to remove growths that are a precursor to cancer. Colonoscopy use tripled in adults over the age of 50, increasing from 21% in 2000 to 60% in 2015, ACS reports.
Positive effects of colonoscopy
Colorectal cancer incidence rates have fallen by about three percent a year in men and women since 2004, according to recent figures. But this mainly affects the elderly. A separate analysis of patients under the age of 50 shows that the incidence rate has risen by about two percent per year in the past decades.
Men get sick and die more often from cancer
Overall, the incidence of cancer in men was 20 percent higher in the US than in women, and the death rate from cancer was even 40 percent higher for men. The gender differences, however, vary depending on the type of cancer. "For example, thyroid cancer incidence rates are higher in women than in men (21 vs. 7 per 100,000 population), despite equivalent deaths (0.5 per 100,000 population)," report the cancer researchers. Continued success in reducing cancer death rates "requires more clinical and basic research to improve early detection and treatment, as well as creative new strategies for establishing healthy behaviors," emphasizes Otis W. Brawley of ACS. (Fp)