Cancer death rates in US go down

The number of deaths from cancer in the United States is significantly declining, most probably because of better treatment, newer drugs and state-of-the-art screening tests that can detect the presence of a disease or a risk factor for a disease in time, according to an annual analysis released Monday by leading American cancer groups.

Reporting Monday on the Cancer Journal's Web site, Scientists from the federal health agencies and the American Cancer Society concluded that death rates between 1993 and 2001 dropped by an average of 2.1 percent a year, while between 1993 and 2001 the rate declined on average 1.1 percent a year.

Data in the annual "Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer" was compiled by the American Cancer Society, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and the government's National Cancer Institute and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cancer is the second-leading killer of Americans, after heart disease, and the fatality rates are the best indicator of progress against the disease, the researchers said.

"The death rates are the bottom line, and they tell you the benefit of many factors, from treatment to detection to changing lifestyles," says Brenda Edwards, associate director of the surveillance research program at NCI and co-authors of the report.

The new assessment pronounced the 2.6% a year cancer death decline in men and 1.8% a year in women. The report shows that death rates have fallen for the four common cancers in both genders-colorectal cancer in men and women, prostate cancer in men, breast cancer in women and lung cancer in men.

According to the new analysis, cancer death rates have decreased for the majority of the 15 most commonly diagnosed cancers in men and women. Of the total, 12 most common causes of cancer for men declined, including lung, prostate, colon and rectal, pancreatic, bladder, kidney, stomach, brain, oral cavity, leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and myeloma.

And, for women, the death rates declined for 10 of the overall most common cancers, including breast, colon and rectal, stomach, kidney, cervical, brain, bladder, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma.

Fatal rates for female breast cancer decreased substantially from 2001 through 2004, while their lung cancer incidence rates stabilized from 1998 through 2004 after long term increases. Colorectal cancer incidence rates have decreased by more than 2.0% per year for men and women which possibly are due to prevention through the removal of precancerous polyps.

The cancer experts believe the significant decline in cancer death rate can be attributed to the effectiveness of prevention efforts, new screening methods and wider use of early detection, and better treatments that have extended life expectancy after diagnosis.

Health officials has tried hard to convince people to cease smoking, use of mammograms, colonoscopies and other screening tests for colorectal and prostate cancer.

“The significant decline in cancer death rates demonstrates important progress in the fight against cancer that has been achieved through effective tobacco control, screening, early detection, and appropriate treatment," said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director, Julie L. Gerberding, M.D. “As a nation, we must commit to continuing and enhancing these important public health efforts.”