Ready for some good news to change? The American Cancer Society reported this week that cancer mortality was down more than 2.4% in 2018 and 31% from the 1991 peak. Better and earlier diagnosis and treatment credit and a decline in smoking.
About 40% of Americans are diagnosed with cancer for life, and the risk increases with age. Cancer is the leading cause of death for middle-aged Americans and two to three times more likely to kill someone in the 50s or 60s than even Covid-19. The incidence of some cancers such as breast, liver and kidney is also rising for some demographic and lifestyle reasons.
The report notes that breast cancer is growing 0.5% per year amid an increase in body weights and a declining pregnancy rate. Obesity increases the risk for breast cancer while reducing pregnancy and breastfeeding. Liver cancer is also on the rise due to obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and hepatitis.
Nevertheless cancer mortality rates are falling at an accelerating pace, from around a 1% decline each year in the 1990s to 1.5% in the 2000s and early 2010 to 2.3% from 2016 to 2018. Screening is consistent capturing early cell mutations and tumors has helped raise five-year survival rates for prostate cancer (98%), melanoma (93%), and breast cancer (90%) and making them largely curable.
Lung cancer (21%) is usually diagnosed later due to poor diagnosis, but mortality has still fallen by about 5% each year from 2014 to 2018. One reason is that fewer people are diagnosed. smoking, and better treatments such as the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine-kinase will enable a defender to target non-small cell lung cancer.