Better cancer prevention and treatments along with lowering smoking rates have resulted in 22 percent less deaths from the disease from 1991 – 2011, according to a study from the American Cancer Society.
“Further reductions in cancer death rates can be accelerated by applying existing cancer control knowledge across all segments of the population, with an emphasis on those in the lowest socioeconomic bracket and other disadvantaged populations,” write Rebecca Siegel and her colleagues in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The researchers compiled data from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics. The decline is obviously great news, but the percentage does differ for specific regions of the country.
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Southern states had the highest rates of cancer deaths during the time period. The decline in the south was about 15 percent while northern states were 20 percent or more.
“The large geographic variation in cancer death rates and trends reflects differences in risk factor patterns, such as smoking and obesity, as well as disparities in the national distribution of poverty and access to health care, which have increased over time,” the researchers write.
As far as which types of cancer will be the most diagnosed in the near future, the researchers say prostate cancer will be the highest for men, breast cancer for women and lung cancer will be the second most for both – but it will be leading cause of death. Kids under the age of 14 will be diagnosed most of leukemia, and for ages 15 – 19, cancers of the brain and nervous system will be the most common.
As we start a new year, we can be hopeful that the number of deaths from the disease will just continue to go down.
