Report: Cancer deaths down, with some exceptions

Cancer deaths are falling overall, although a yearslong decline in deaths from prostate cancer has stopped.

That’s according to the National Institute of Cancer, which on Tuesday released the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, as well as a companion study on prostate cancer. The Status of Cancer report, a collaborative effort between the National Cancer Institute and other national health organizations, shows that from 1999 to 2015, the overall cancer death rate went down by 1.8 percent annually among men and 1.4 percent among women.

Between 2011 and 2015, death rates dropped for 11 of the 18 most common cancer types in men and for 14 of the 20 most common cancers in women. It’s unclear exactly what’s causing the decline, but it’s likely a variety of factors, said Dr. Kathy Cronin, deputy associate director of the National Cancer Institute’s surveillance program.

“Mortality is affected by a lot of things along the way,” Cronin said, including advances in care, increases in early detection and declines in habits that put people at risk for cancer, including smoking.

Smoking particularly seems to affect lung cancer, Cronin said. As rates of smoking decline, “lung cancer incidence and mortality is falling for both men and women.”

However, she said, it is still the second most common cancer for both men and women.

The declining death rates echo what’s been happening in Connecticut. Though the annual report didn’t include a state-by-state breakdown of cancer statistics, the National Cancer Institute’s cancer profile of Connecticut shows the cancer death rate here has been declining for more than two decades.

In 1991, for example, there were 204 cancer deaths per 100,000 people in Connecticut. In 2014, there were 146.8 cancer deaths per 100,000 people.

Cancer death rates have been falling in all Connecticut counties. Fairfield County’s death rate in 2014 was the lowest in the state, at 139.8 cancer deaths per 100,000 people. Windham County’s was the highest, with 168.3 cancer deaths per 100,000.

But the news wasn’t all positive. Death rates for multiple cancers increased in that same time period, including those for liver, pancreas and brain cancer in both men and women. Among women, death rates for cancer of the uterus rose, and, among men, deaths from cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx and soft tissue went up.

Cronin said that in a report like this one, which mainly deals with analyzing data, “you can’t really say what causes something.”