ACS: Progress continues in cancer death prevention

Issue: July 25, 2011

From 1990 to 2007, a steady reduction in the overall cancer death rate led to the prevention of 898,000 deaths from the disease, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society in its latest report, “Cancer Statistics 2011.” According to the report, however, progress has not equally benefited all facets of the population.

“The nearly 900,000 cancer deaths avoided over a 17-year period stand in stark contrast to the repeated claim that cancer death rates have not budged,” John R. Seffrin, PhD, CEO of the ACS and the ACS Cancer Action Network, said in a press release. “Nonetheless, we refuse to be satisfied and are committed to doing whatever it takes, not only to ensure cancer death rates continue to drop, but to accelerate the decline.”

In 2007, among those aged 25 to 64 years, 37% of premature cancer deaths could have been prevented if the death rate among those with the least education were not more than twice those of the most educated, according to a special section of the report.

Data on cancer incidence, mortality and survival are collected by the ACS each year from the NCI, CDC, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and the National Center for Health Statistics.

In 2011, an estimated 1,596,670 cancer cases and 571,950 deaths attributed to cancer will occur in the United States. From 2001 to 2005, the overall cancer incidence rate among men decreased by 1.9% per year; however, the rates were stable in men in the most recent time period. In women, the incidence rates have continued to fall at a rate of 0.6% per year since 1998.

Since the early 1990s, overall cancer death rates have been decreasing; these rates continued to decline in all racial/ethnic groups and in both men and women since 1998. However, rates remained stable among American Indian and Alaskan Native women. During this same time period, black and Hispanic men had the largest annual decreases in cancer death rates (2.6% and 2.5%, respectively). Additionally, lung cancer death rates have continued to decline significantly in women, after a continual increase since the 1930s.

A special section of the report focuses on the importance of eliminating disparities in cancer deaths. According to the press release, in 2007, cancer death rates were 2.6 times higher in the least educated segment of the population vs. the most educated. This was true mostly for lung cancer, for which the death rate was five times higher in the least educated vs. the most educated. This variation reflects the rise in smoking prevalence by education level: 31% of men with 12 or fewer years of education are current smokers vs. 12% of college graduates and 5% of men with graduate degrees.

According to the report, 37% of premature cancer deaths could potentially have been avoided if all US adults had the same cancer death rate in 2007 as the most educated non-Hispanic whites. Among blacks, eliminating the gap among the most and least educated could possibly avoid twice as many premature cancer deaths as eliminating racial disparities between blacks and whites.

These estimates should be interpreted with caution, as they are based on statistical models and may vary from year to year, according to the release.

For more information:

Siegel R. CA Cancer J Clin. 2011:doi:10.3322/caac.20121.

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