Cancer deaths rates are down across the board, with lung cancer and melanoma posting the biggest declines, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.
The report examined cases from 2014 through 2018, and found that cancer death rates decreased an average of 2.2% per year among males and 1.7% per year among females. Overall, the mortality rates for 11 of the 19 cancers most common in men and 14 of the 20 most common in women declined in those years.
Read More“While we celebrate the progress, we must remain committed to research, patient support, and advocacy to make even greater progress to improve the lives of cancer patients and their families.”
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It was not all good news though, with women seeing an increase in mortality rates for uterus, liver, brain, pancreas, and soft tissue including heart cancers while men also saw similar increases in many of the same areas as well as bones and joints and oral cavity and pharynx cancers.
The report also noted that despite decelerating strides having been made in the past, there were increases in cancer incidence and death rates for colorectal and female breast cancers.
The reversal of that trend is attributed in part to obesity.
"The continued decline in cancer death rates should be gratifying to the cancer research community, as evidence that scientific advances over several decades are making a real difference in outcomes at the population level," said Dr. Norman E. "Ned" Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
"I believe we could achieve even further improvements if we address obesity, which has the potential to overtake tobacco use to become the leading modifiable factor associated with cancer."
The annual report is a collaborative effort between The American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Cancer Institute, and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
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