Cancer Mortality Rates Continue to Fall

That cancer mortality is declining at a time in which the aged segment of the population is growing, and ever more people are overweight and obese, is a testament to (a) improved prevention (largely fewer people smoking, which has a sizable impact on lung cancer incidence and severity) and (b) the ever increasing efficacy of modern cancer treatments, particularly immunotherapies. These newer cancer therapies are still in the comparatively early stages of evolution as a technology platform, and we should expect these gains to continue. The immunotherapies of the 2030s will be very impressive in comparison to those deployed today. The cancer death rate declined by 29% from 1991 to 2017, including a 2.2% drop from 2016 to 2017, the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported. The steady 26-year decline in overall cancer mortality is driven by long-term drops in death rates for the four major cancers - lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate, although recent trends are mixed. The pace of mortality reductions for lung cancer - the leading cause of cancer death - accelerated in recent years. Overall cancer death rates dropped by an average of 1.5% per year during the most recent decade of data (2008-2017), continuing a trend that began in the early 1990s and resulting in the 29% drop in cancer mortality in that time. The drop translates to approximately 2.9 million fewer cancer deaths than would have occurred had mortality rates remained at their peak...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs