Cancer death rates are declining — but not for all types. Report hints at one factor
Rates of people dying from cancer overall continue to decline in both men and women — and for all racial and ethnic groups — according to an annual report on cancer in the U.S. conducted by several federal health agencies.
Death rates dropped for 11 of the 19 most common cancers in men and for 14 of the 20 most common cancers for women from 2014-2018, with significant progress seen in lung and skin cancer.
Dr. Karen Knudsen, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, said the improvements in survival for these types of cancers “are the result of progress across the entire cancer continuum — from reduced smoking rates to prevent cancer to discoveries such as targeted drug therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors.”
The report’s findings, published Thursday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, weren’t all positive, however.
Death rates for cancers in the brain and pancreas increased in both sexes, while those in the mouth and throat rose for men and cancers in the liver and uterus jumped for women.
Previously declining death rates for colorectal and female breast cancer have slowed down and those for prostate cancer have “leveled off,” according to the report. Overall cancer incidence rates continue to rise among females, children, teens and young adults.
Researchers say obesity could be to blame.
“The continued decline in cancer death rates should be gratifying to the cancer research community, as evidence that scientific advances over several decades are making a real difference in outcomes at the population level,” Dr. Norman “Ned” Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute, said in a statement.
“I believe we could achieve even further improvements if we address obesity, which has the potential to overtake tobacco use to become the leading modifiable factor associated with cancer.,” Sharpless added.
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The majority of declines in cancer death rates occurred more recently between 2015 and 2018, the researchers found. Death rates in men dropped 1.8% per year in 2001-2015 compared to 2.3% per year in 2015-2018. In females, the declines accelerated from 1.4% per year to 2.1%.
Two-year relative survival rates for advanced melanoma, the most common cancer in the U.S., increased 3.1% per year for cases diagnosed between 2009 and 2014.
Overall cancer incidence rates were “slightly lower” among Black people, but their overall cancer death rates were higher compared to white people.
