Cancer death rates still dropping
The death rate from most forms of cancer has continued a decline begun in the early 1990s, driven in large part by decreases in lung cancer in men, according to an annual national cancer report released Wednesday.
Between 1993 and 2003, deaths from cancer dropped about 16 percent in men and 8 percent in women, the study found. Deaths from lung cancer declined about 15 percent in men.
This year’s report, which was published in the journal Cancer, showed the first leveling off of breast cancer rates, although researchers could not fully explain why.
They said better treatment, prevention and diagnosis have all helped lower cancer deaths in general over the years. About 560,000 Americans die each year from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
“Basically, we haven’t wiped out cancer, but it shows in the last decade … we’re slowly moving in the right direction,” said Dr. Robert McKenna Jr., a thoracic surgical oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was not affiliated with the study.
The report analyzed data on all deaths from cancer in the United States from 1975 to 2003.
During that period, the most lethal cancers in men – lung, prostate and colorectal – all showed declines.
Among the top three killers of women, only colorectal cancer deaths showed a decline.
The rate of lung cancer in women rose about 2 percent from 1995 to 2003. The rate, however, is gradually slowing.
Men, who smoked in larger numbers and started smoking earlier than women, evidently got the message sooner about the health risks, said Holly L. Howe, the report’s lead author and executive director at the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
She said she expected the death rate among women to begin dropping in a few more years.
The study found that the rate of newly diagnosed cancer remained relatively steady over the past decade. One significant exception was the rate of thyroid cancer in women, which doubled in the mid-1990s and doubled again from 2000 to 2003.
The report, which was written by researchers from several cancer groups, including the National Cancer Institute, includes the first comprehensive look at cancer in the Hispanic population, the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States.
Compared with non-Hispanic whites and blacks, Hispanics had lower incidence rates for most types of cancer. Hispanic men developed colorectal cancer, for example, at a rate of about 52 per 100,000, compared with non-Hispanic white and black men, who developed colorectal cancer at rates of 65 and 71 per 100,000, respectively.
However, Hispanics did develop more cancers associated with viral and bacterial infections, such as cervical cancer, stomach cancer and liver cancer.
This stems in part from coming from countries where they may be more exposed to infections, said Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“They may be protected because their diet may be more associated with vegetables and beans and things like that,” Ganz said. “Earlier pregnancy may also be protective for breast cancer.”