The positive trend continues: cancer mortality rates are down for men, women and children



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Each year, the US National Institute of Health (NIH) publishes a major annual report on cancer trends and incidence rates. The report is written by NIH's SEER program, which stands for Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results. It includes overall cancer trends as well as trends specific to certain demographics such as age group, gender, race and type of cancer. .

Reports containing so much data take a little time to compile and badyze (data collection is the result of a combined effort by groups such as the American Cancer Society and the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, both of which have published their own trend reports over the past year.) Due to the magnitude and slowness of the efforts, the trends reported in this year's report include data from 1999 to 2016.

Global delivery? Fewer people are dying of cancer. And that includes everyone – men, women and children.

Trends in cancer mortality rate

Specifically, cancer death rates have decreased:

  • An average of 1.8% per year between 1999 and 2016 for men.
  • An average of 0.9% from 1999 to 2002, then 1.4% per year for women from 2002 to 2016.
  • An average of 1.3% for children aged 0 to 14

For men, the decline was constant in ten of the most common cancers, including leukemia, melanoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, colon cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer and many others. There have been some cancers for which the mortality rate has actually increased; these include brain cancer, central nervous system cancer, liver cancer, oral cancer and pancreatic cancer.

For women, the data showed a steady decline among 13 of the 20 most common cancers, including bad cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, leukemia, melanoma, nonmeliosis Hodgkin's, cervical cancer, lung cancer, etc. As with data for men, mortality rates have actually increased for some cancers, including brain cancer, central nervous system cancer, pancreatic cancer, and uterine cancer.

For both men and women, melanoma recorded the largest decline in the death rate among all cancers. The decline of about 5% in the number of deaths from melanoma from 2012 to 2015 corresponds to promising new immunotherapy drugs that have emerged in recent years. (The first point-check inhibitor immunotherapy drug was approved for the first time in the treatment of melanoma in 2011).

Trends in Cancer Incidence Rates

While cancer mortality rates have declined among men, women, and children, the cancer incidence rate, that is, the number of new cancer cases reported each year, decreased only in men. For women, it remained stable and for children, it increased.

Specifically, cancer incidence rates:

– Decrease on average 2.1% per year between 1999 and 2015 for men

– did not change between 1999 and 2015 for women

– Increase of 0.9% per year between 2011 and 2015 for children aged 0 to 14 years.

Interestingly, despite the fact that incidence rates for men have decreased and that the incidence rates for women have remained the same, the report noted that global cancer incidence rates among men from 2011 to 2015 were 1.2 times higher than among women. The report explains this phenomenon somewhat, sharing that cancer, in general, is diagnosed more often in men than in women.

"Cancer is more common among men than women," says the report. "Mainly because of higher smoking rates, occupational exposures to carcinogens and HPV and oral hepatitis B and C."

Special focus on youth and adults of average age

This year, the SEER report decided to do something new in addition to its annual statistics of mortality rates and cancer incidence. The authors looked very specifically at trends in adults aged 20 to 49, for whom mortality rates declined by an average of 2.3% for men and 1.7% per year for women between 2012 and 2016 .

They listed the most deadly cancers and the most common cancers among men and women in this age group.

For men aged 20 to 49, the most fatal cancers were:

  1. Colorectal cancer
  2. Lung cancer
  3. Brain cancer

For women aged 20 to 49, the most fatal cancers were:

  1. Breast cancer
  2. Lung cancer
  3. Colorectal cancer

For men aged 20 to 49, the most common cancers were:

  1. Colorectal cancer
  2. Testicular cancer
  3. Melanoma

For women ages 20 to 49, the most common cancers were:

  1. Breast cancer
  2. Thyroid cancer
  3. Melanoma

And especially with incidence rates, while overall cancer incidence rates were higher among men than women, incidence rates for this specific age group (20 to 49 years) were reversed , that is, higher for women.

Focus on racial and ethnic trends

The SEER report also examined cancer disparities among racial groups and found that black men and women, on the whole, had the highest mortality rate of any racial or ethnic group, all sites combined.

Linda Tantawi, CEO of Susan G. Komen's New York branch, recently told SurvivorNet that this is especially true for women with bad cancer. African-American women are diagnosed at the same rate as white women, but they die 40% more often than white women.

"It's unacceptable," said Linda. "Disparities in access to care prevail throughout the United States and increase the risk of bad cancer deaths among women."

Dr. Edwin Posadas, Director of Translational Oncology and Medical Director of the Cedars-Sinai Urological Oncology Program, recently told SurvivorNet that these disparities are particularly extreme. The incidence rate of prostate cancer is 60% higher in African American men than in white men and two-thirds more likely to die from this disease.

So, yes, news from the NIH SEER report is generally encouraging. Cancer death rates are falling thanks to positive trends such as an early diagnosis, a reduction in smoking and, of course, promising new research and drug development. But as declines continue, disparities do the same.

Dr. Posadas said, "Being able to talk to each of these grbadroots communities is very, very important."

Learn more about the rigorous medical review process of SurvivorNet.


Caroline Hopkins is a writer for SurvivorNet. Read more

Each year, the US National Institute of Health (NIH) publishes a major annual report on cancer trends and incidence rates. The report is written by NIH's "SEER" program, which means …

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