The annual American Cancer Society’s annual reports on cancer are now available. Please find Cancer Statistics 2012 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.20138/full and Cancer Facts & Figures 2012 http://tinyurl.com/8a7l4sm
Highlights of the report include:
Between 1990/ 1991 and 2008 overall death rates decreased 23% in men and 15% in women translating to more than 1 million deaths from cancer that were avoided.
- Death rates for lung, colon, breast and prostate cancers, which are responsible for the most cancer deaths, continue to decline.
- New cases and death rates vary among racial and ethnic groups.
- African American men have a 15% higher incidence of cancer and a 33% higher death rate than white men.
- African American women have a 6% lower rate of new cancer cases but a 16% higher death rate than white women.
- African American men have had the most rapid decline in death rates over the past decade at 2.4% per year.
- There has been an increase over the last decade of people developing less common cancers that include:
- Pancreas
- Liver
- Thyroid
- Kidney
- Melanoma of the skin
- Esophageal adenocarcinoma
- Throat cancers associated with HPV infection
- Reasons for the increased rates in the above cancers are not entirely known but believed to be linked to obesity. It is also possible that more of these cancers are being reported because of better early detection practices.
