U.S. cancer death rates continue to drop as incidence remains stable
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Cancer death rates declined broadly between 2015 and 2019 in the United States as overall incidence remained generally stable, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.
The report, published in Cancer, showed decreases in death rates of 2.1% per year overall, with treatment advances fueling steeper declines in lung cancer and melanoma.
Increased cancer incidence among certain populations can be attributed in part to changes in risk factors, screening test use and diagnostic practice, investigators wrote. They also noted persistent racial and ethnic disparities in death rates and incidence of several cancer types.
“The findings in this year’s Annual Report to the Nation show our ongoing progress against cancer, continuing a more than 2-decade trend in declining mortality that reflects improvements in preventing, detecting and treating cancer,” Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, director of NCI, said in a press release. “The advances shown in the report underscore the importance of working together across society to develop effective, equitable approaches to tackle this complex disease.”
NCI collaborated on the report with CDC, American Cancer Society and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
Included in their observations:
Overall cancer death rates from 2015 to 2019 decreased by 2.1% per year overall, 2.3% per year among men and 1.9% among women.
Annual death-rate decreases accelerated among both men and women from 2001 to 2019.
Lung cancer and melanoma death rates saw the sharpest declines (by 4% to 5% per year); death rates increased for cancers of the pancreas, brain, and bones and joints among men, and for cancers of the pancreas and uterus among women.
The highest incidence rates occurred among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/NA) individuals, followed closely by white people and Black people. The lowest overall cancer incidence rates occurred among Asian/Pacific Islander (API) and Hispanic people.
Incidence rates for all sites combined decreased among Black, API and Hispanic men, but increased among white, API, AI/AN and Hispanic women from 2014 to 2018. Incidence rates remained stable among white and AI/AN men and Black women.
“Through funding scientific breakthroughs and raising awareness about prevention and early detection, we are making progress against a subset of the more than 200 diseases we call cancer,” Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD, CEO of American Cancer Society, said in the release. “However, for certain cancer types, concerning trends persist, and durable cures remain elusive for many people.”
The report showed racial and ethnic disparities in many malignancies, such as bladder cancer, for which incidence rates declined among white, Black, API and Hispanic men but increased among AI/AN men from 2014 to 2018. Uterine cancer incidence rates among white women remained stable from 2014 to 2018 despite increasing among women in every other racial and ethnic group over the same period.
The report also included a section on incidence, death and survival rates for pancreatic cancer, which despite representing only 3% of new cancer diagnoses accounts for 8 percent of cancer deaths and is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
The investigators found that:
Incidence rates of pancreatic cancer increased by 1% each year from 2001 to 2018 among men and women, with death rates increasing by 0.2% per year from 2001 to 2019 for both sexes.
Incidence rates of two common subtypes of pancreatic cancer, neuroendocrine tumors and adenocarcinomas, increased among both men and women from 2001 to 2018.
One-year relative survival of people diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors increased from 65.9% to 84.2% between 2001 and 2017, whereas 1-year relative survival of those diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinomas increased from 24% to 36.7%.
“Pancreatic cancer incidence and survival reflect both the underlying risk [for] disease, as well as the difficulty of diagnosing pancreatic cancer at a treatable stage,” Betsy A. Kohler, MPH, executive director of North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, said in the release. “As advancements in screening technology and effective treatments for early-stage disease become available, we are hopeful for greater improvements in pancreatic cancer survival, which historically has been a particularly lethal cancer type.”
References:
- Annual Report to the Nation: Cancer deaths continue downward trend; modest improvements in survival for pancreatic cancer (press release). Available at: www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2022/annual-report-to-the-nation-2022?cid=eb_govdel. Published Oct. 27, 2022. Accessed Oct. 27, 2022.
- Cronin KA, et al. Cancer. 2022;doi:10.1002/cncr.34479.
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts