Researchers: New cancer cases, mortality rates have fallen for most U.S. groups

[DearAbby]

CNN) -- New cancer cases and mortality rates linked to the disease have fallen significantly in recent years for almost all gender and ethnic groups in the United States, researchers said Monday.

Cancer diagnosis rates decreased by an average of 1 percent per year from 1999 to 2006, the last year data are available, according to an annual report in the journal Cancer.

Mortality rates declined between 2001 and 2006, according to the report. The decline was bigger among men, at 2 percent per year. For women, it was 1.5 percent per year in the same period.

"Death rates for all cancers combined from 2002 through 2006 were highest for black men and women and lowest for Asian/Pacific Islander men and women," the report said.

The declines in mortality rates were a result of a drop in death rates from common cancers: lung, prostate and colorectal in men; and breast and colorectal cancers in women. These are the leading types of cancer in men and women, respectively, the report said.

Despite an increase in the late 1990s, rates of breast cancer in women decreased by an average of 1.2 percent per year between 1997 and 2006, the report said.

While prostate, lung and bronchus oral cavity cancers decreased among men, some types of cancer increased, the report said. Rate increases were noted among men for kidney and liver cancers, it said.

Incidence rates decreased for women in the most common cancers, including breast, uterine and ovarian. But rates increased among women for cancers of the lung, thyroid, pancreas and bladder.

Both genders also registered a rise in rates of leukemia and melanoma. And while the rate of lung cancer declined for men, it went up for women, the report said.

The report was by researchers from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

Link
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/07/cancer.deaths.down/index.html

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