Cancer Death Rates Falling, but Slowly

The number of Americans who died from the four most common cancers continued to fall in the late 1990s, but researchers say there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

A new report shows that the death rate for all cancers combined began to stabilize – neither increasing nor decreasing — in the late 1990s after a brief period of decline. Prior to 1990, overall death rates had been steadily increasing. Meanwhile, the number of new cancer cases also stabilized in the mid-1990s. “This report shows that we have made some progress in reducing the burden of cancer in the United States, but much still needs to be done to reach the Healthy People 2010 goals — including wider application of what science has shown to be effective in preventing, screening, and treating cancer,” says CDC director Julie L. Gerberding, MD, in a news release. Cancer Gains and Losses The report, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, shows that the death rate from lung cancer, which is the leading cancer killer, continues to drop among black and white men. But while the lung cancer death rate among women is increasing, that increase has slowed in recent years. Researchers say those changes reflect changes in tobacco smoking rates among men and women. Other findings of the report include: Breast cancer. Death rates from breast cancer are continuing to fall even though the number of new breast cancer cases is growing. Prostate cancer. Deaths due to prostate cancer have declined since 1994, but the rate of new prostate cancers has grown by 2-3% each year since 1995. From 1996 to 2000, the number of new prostate cancers was 66% higher among black men than white men. Colorectal cancer. The number of colorectal cancer deaths has been dropping for both whites and blacks since the 1970s with steeper declines since the mid-1980s. New colorectal cancer cases have been stable since 1996 for men and women. Researchers say advances in cancer screening explains much of the gains in new cancer cases as well as the decline in cancer death rates. Catching cancers early substantially reduces the risk of death. “Biomedical research has dramatically enhanced our understanding of cancer and given us more effective strategies for cancer control,” said Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute, in a news release. “These declines in death rates from four leading cancers are the dividends of those advances.” (Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Sept. 3, 2003. News release, Center for Disease Control and Prevention: WebMD Health)