Cancer Deaths Have Fallen Drastically Over the Last 25 Years. But These Types Are On the Rise

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death among Americans, behind only heart disease. But there’s good news: the cancer death rate has drastically declined over the past 25 years, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Overall, the cancer death rate dropped by 27% between 1991 and 2016, according to the report’s data, which came from the National Center for Health Statistics. Steadily declining cancer mortality rates saved about 2.6 million lives between 1991 and 2016. Significant reductions in lung cancer mortality explain a large part of the overall trend. Smoking rates have fallen dramatically in recent years, corresponding to a significant dip in lung cancer deaths. And since smoking rates have traditionally been higher among men than women, male death rates have fallen especially far: by 48% between 1990 and 2016, compared to a 23% drop among women between 2002 and 2016. Improvements in cancer screening and treatment have also led to lower death rates, the report says, especially among the four major cancers: lung, breast, prostate and colorectal. Together, these cancers are expected to account for more than 800,000 new diagnoses this year, so any further improvements in their detection and care could have a sizable impact. But while cancer mortality rates are shrinking, diagnoses aren’t dropping across the board. Incidence of breast cancer, the most common type of cancer overall, is increasingly modestly, perhaps in part ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Cancer healthytime Source Type: news