Total Cancer Deaths Down In USA, First Time In 75 Years
Featured ArticleMain Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Breast Cancer; Lung Cancer; Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 09 Feb 2006 - 16:00 PDT
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For the first time since 1930, the total number of annual cancer deaths has dropped in the USA. In 2003, 556,902 people died of cancer in the USA, the total for 2002 was 557,271, according to figures published by the National Center for Health Statistics.
The greatest contributor to the fall, say experts, is the drop in the number of people in the country who smoke. Another contributor is earlier diagnosis, as well as better treatment.
This is the first drop in the number of total deaths. If calculated as deaths per 100,000 people, rates have been falling by about 1% per year for the last ten years. However, as the US population has been rising fast, it is only now that the fall in total deaths have overtaken the rise in the country's population.
The biggest falls in total deaths were seen in:
-- Lung Cancer
-- Breast Cancer
-- Prostate Cancer
--Colorectal Cancer
These four cancers account for over half of all cancers in the USA.
Cancers and drop in death rates
Breast cancer
Death rate dropping by 2% per year since 1990.
Colon cancer death
Death rates dropping by 2% per year since the mid-1980s.
Prostate cancer
Deaths rates dropping by 4% a year since 1994.
Lung cancer
Death rates dropping by 2% per year since 1991 for men, but has not dropped for women.
In fact, the total number of all cancer deaths among women increased.
Experts say they expect to see total numbers rise again. This is because people are living longer. Cancers tend to develop more in people as they get old - if there are more very old people around, there will be more cancer diagnoses.
As the American population is getting fatter, who knows whether in the medium term this will have an effect on cancer rates and cancer deaths. Obesity raises the risk of developing diabetes type 2, which in turn may raise the risk of developing some cancers.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
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What about cancer treatment deaths?
posted by Gregory D. Pawelski on 10 Feb 2006 at 1:18 amBy analyzing non-cancer deaths among cancer patients it becomes clear that orthodox therapies often do more harm than good. For example, cancer treatment can damage the heart and cause deaths from heart failure. This means fewer deaths from cancer.
Analysis of the records of 1.2 million cancer cases in the Surveillance, Evaluation and End Results (SEER) database showed that non-cancer deaths accounted for 21% - 37% of all deaths. The authors attributed this effect to the damage caused by cancer treatment (mainly radiotherapy and chemotherapy).
I believe that any true randomized clinical trial would show these figures to be too low. In clinical trials, many patients are excluded because they could not complete the rather arduous treatment. So randomized comparisons are of healthier treated patients against all the controls, rendering a lot of trials invalid.
It's time to set aside empiric one-size-fits-all treatment in favor of recognizing that breast, lung, ovarian and other forms of cancer represent heterogenous diseases, where the tumors of different patients have different responses to treatment. It requires individualized treatment based on testing the individual properties of each patient's cancer.
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