Cancer deaths falling in U.S.

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

Cancer deaths falling in U.S., annual report shows

1/16/04

By: Reuters Health



WASHINGTON (Reuters), Jan 16 - Death rates continue to

drop for the top three cancer killers in men -- lung,

colon and prostate -- and for breast and colon cancer

in women, according to the latest American Cancer

Society statistics, published on Wednesday.

But more U.S. women are dying from lung cancer, the

annual report shows, and more people are dying of some

types of liver and esophageal cancers. The report is

posted on the Internet (click here).



It estimates that 1.368 million Americans will be

diagnosed with cancer in 2004, and 563,700 will die of

it. This works out to 1,500 Americans a day. 



Colon cancer death rates fell to 20.8 per 100,000

people per year in the latest year available, 2000.

That compares to 20.9 per 100,000 in 1999 and 22.6 in

1995. Breast cancer deaths fell from 30.6 per 100,000

in 1995 to 26.7 in 2000, the group said. 



Cancer has long been the second leading cause of death

in the United States after heart disease, accounting

for about a quarter of all deaths. 



The statistics show it is possible to avoid many

cancers, said Dr. Michael Thun, the Society's vice

president of epidemiological and surveillance

research. 



"Cancer is not an inescapable fact of life," Thun told

reporters in a telephone briefing. The report

estimates that tobacco use will cause 180,000 cancer

deaths in 2004 - 160,000 of them from lung cancer. 



In women, the epidemic of deaths from lung cancer

trails that of men by about 25 years. This matches the

decrease in smoking rates -- women started smoking

later than men did and took up smoking even as men

started to kick the habit. 



A third of cancers will be caused by lifestyle factors

such as lack of exercise, poor nutrition including a

high-fat diet low in fiber, fruits and vegetables and

obesity. 



For instance, Thun said, about 20% of U.S. adults have

a fatty liver from obesity, which can lead to chronic

hepatitis. This in turn can lead to cancer and helps

explain a rise in liver cancer incidence in the United

States, he said.



Obesity can also lead to stomach and bile reflux,

which can irritate the lower esophagus and also

eventually cause cancer, Thun said. 



But advances in screening technology mean more cancers

are being caught early. And treatments, including

surgical techniques, drug and targeted radiation

therapy, mean the five-year relative survival rate for

all cancers combined has risen to 63% from 51% in

1976. 



Thun said it is important to look at cancer rates and

not just overall numbers. And they must be adjusted

for age to have any meaning. 



"Solid tumors are diseases of aging. The number of

people who get cancer go up but when you look at the

trends in the death rates ... you see that there has

been a decrease in the death rate from all cancers

combined in men ...and a smaller decrease in women.

There's clear progress in reducing death rates." 



One piece of bad news is that ethnic disparities in

cancer rates and survival continue to worsen, Thun

said. "Since the early 1980s the differences in the

death rate in colorectal cancer between black and

white men has widened." 



He said the death rate has decreased markedly among

white men, probably because of screening and early

treatment, while the death rates in black men have not

changed much. The same is true, on a smaller scale,

for women, he added.



By Maggie Fox



Last Updated: 2004-01-15 14:20:45 -0400 (Reuters

Health)







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"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

Thomas Jefferson



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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