U.S. cancer death rate falls for 25th year; obesity a growing problem
Early detection, treatment translate into fewer mortalities
NEW YORK — The U.S. cancer death rate has hit a milestone: It’s been falling for at least 25 years, according to a new report.
Lower smoking rates are translating into fewer deaths. Advances in early detection and treatment also are having a positive impact, experts say.
But it’s not all good news. Obesity-related cancer deaths are rising, and prostate cancer deaths are no longer dropping, said Rebecca Siegel, lead author of the American Cancer Society report published Tuesday.
Cancer also remains the nation’s No. 2 killer. The society predicts there will be more than 1.7 million new cancer cases, and more than 600,000 cancer deaths, in the U.S. this year.
A breakdown of what the report says:
Prostate cancer
The prostate cancer death rate fell by half over two decades, but experts have been wondering whether the trend changed after a 2011 decision by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to stop recommending routine testing of men using the PSA blood test. The prostate cancer death rate flattened from 2013 to 2016, so the PSA testing may have prevented some cancer deaths, the report suggests.
Obesity
Of the most common types of cancer in the U.S., all those with increasing death rates are linked to obesity, including pancreatic and uterine.
Another is liver cancer, with deaths increasing since the 1970s, initially tied to hepatitis C among drug-users, but now obesity accounts for a third of such deaths.
Disparity
The historic racial gap in cancer death rates has narrowed, but an economic gap is growing, especially for deaths that could be prevented by early screening, better eating and less smoking.
Dr. Darrell Gray, deputy director of Ohio State University’s Center for Cancer Health Equity, called the findings “important but not surprising.”