Up Front

Overall Cancer Death Rates Decline

By Monika Guttman

Americans’ risk of dying from cancer continues to drop, according to a new report from the nation’s leading cancer organizations, even though the rate of new cancers remains stable.

In the “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2003, Featuring Cancer among U.S. Hispanic/Latino Populations,” published in the October 15, 2006, issue of Cancer, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute and other organizations present trends over the past several decades for all major cancers.

The report shows that a long-term decline in overall cancer death rates that started in the 1990s continued through 2003 for all races and both sexes. The declines were greater among men—death rates decreased for 11 of the 15 most common cancers in men, versus 10 of the 15 most common cancers in women.

The authors attribute the decrease in death rates partly to successful efforts to reduce smoking and exposure to tobacco. “Public health efforts help a great deal, and that’s what these statistics reflect: years of getting the message out that smoking contributes to all kinds of cancer,” says Barbara Gitlitz, M.D., director of the Lung, Head and Neck Program at USC/Norris Comp rehensive Cancer Center and professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “The statistics are reflecting the fact that we have new weapons in our arsenal for treating cancer once people get the disease.”

The report also credited earlier detection and more effective treatment with improved survival, and suggests that continued declines in death rates will depend upon improvements and innovations in all these areas. “Right now, we don’t screen for lung cancer because there are no guidelines yet, nothing like a bi-annual Pap smear to screen for cervical cancer,” notes Gitlitz. “As we begin to address these issues, we should see survival rates improve even more. And better drugs in the pipeline will add to the tools we have to treat cancer.” The report noted that the rate at which new cancers are diagnosed (incidence rates) for both sexes and all races combined have been stable from 1992 through 2003. Incidence rates for female breast cancer stabilized from 2001 through 2003, ending increases that began in the 1980s. Whether this first indication of a changing trend is real or a random fluctuation cannot be determined until data reporting in the next few years is complete. Also, the data suggest a small increase in the female lung cancer incidence rate from 1991 through 2003, and increasing rates of thyroid cancer among women from 2000-2003.