Rate Of US Cancer Cases Drop
Posted on: Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 08:10 CST
Researchers report that the rate of cancer cases in the United States is down for the first time on record, but specialists worry the progress could be derailed by economic turmoil.
Regular screening for breast and colorectal cancer, declining smoking rates, and improved treatments helped lead to the improvements described in a comprehensive study of cancer in the United States by government and private health experts.
"This decline is seen in blacks, it's seen in whites, it's seen in Hispanics, it's seen in all Americans," Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said.
Tuesday's annual "Report to the Nation" on cancer also shows a small but encouraging change. The rate of new diagnoses among men dropped 1.8 percent a year between 2001 and 2005. For women, the dip was just over half a percent a year.
The report was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Cancer remains the No. 2 killer of Americans, with more than half a million deaths annually, topped only by heart disease. The report detailed problematic regional differences in lung cancer trends tied closely to whether or not individual states are taking important steps to reduce smoking.
Overall U.S. cancer death rates began falling in 1991 and these declines are getting steeper this decade, Brawley noted.
"But the real news here is that this is first time that we've got declines in incidence. We've never had incidence go down since we've been keeping records starting in the 1930s," Brawley said.
American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal, who led the report along with government scientists, wonders if the progress stems from people skipping screenings that would have caught the disease.
NCI Director Dr. John Niederhuber said the decline seems steady enough to be real.
"This really is quite significant," Niederhuber said. "Some of the things we're doing, we're doing right."
Some experts worry recent increases in unemployment and poverty add to the concern that the progress won’t last.
Dr. Louis Weiner, director of Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center said, “We've had some hard-won gains.”
"To slow down progress when we're so close to a fundamental understanding of cancer biology that we need to really made advances is really tragic."
Smoking accounts for 30 percent of all cancer deaths, including about 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Lung cancer cases or deaths rose in 18 states, 16 of which are in the Midwest or South. California, the first state to put in place a broad tobacco control program, was the only state with falling lung cancer incidence and death rates in women.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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