U.S. Cancer Death Rates Dropping Faster

(CBS/AP)  Good news on the cancer front: Death rates are dropping faster than ever, thanks to new progress against colorectal cancer.

A turning point came in 2002, scientists conclude Monday in the annual "Report to the Nation" on cancer. Between 2002 and 2004, death rates dropped by an average of 2.1 percent a year.

That may not sound like much, but between 1993 and 2001, deaths rates dropped on average 1.1 percent a year.

The big change was a two-pronged gain against colorectal cancer.

While it remains the nation's No. 2 cancer killer, deaths are dropping faster for colorectal cancer than for any other malignancy - by almost 5 percent a year among men and 4.5 percent among women.

The decline in death rates was significant, dropping in 12 of the top 15 cancer killer categories in men, including lung, prostate and colorectal, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook. They also dropped in 10 of the top 15 deadly cancers for women, including breast, colorectal and lymphoma.

"I think we are beginning to see the fruits of many years of labor both in research and in other aspects of care in this very significant decline in death rates," Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center told LaPook.

One reason is that colorectal cancer is striking fewer people, the report found. New diagnoses are down roughly 2.5 percent a year for both men and women, thanks to screening tests that can spot precancerous polyps in time to remove them and thus prevent cancer from forming.

It's just the beginning, said Dr. Walter Scott at Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center.

"I would predict that we see these things accelerate," Scott told CBS News correspondent Barry Bagnato.

"We do see people with earlier cancers. We do have advanced surgical techniques," Scott said.

Still, only about half the people who need screening - everyone older than age 50 - gets checked.

"If we're seeing such great impact even at 50 percent screening rates, we think it could be much greater if we could get more of the population tested," said Dr. Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society, who co-wrote the report with government scientists.

The other gain is the result of new treatments, which are credited with doubling survival times for the most advanced patients.

In 1996, there was just one truly effective drug for colon cancer. Today, there are six more, giving patients a variety of chemotherapy cocktails to try to hold their tumors in check, said Dr. Louis Weiner, medical oncology chief at Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center and a colorectal cancer specialist.

"I can tell you the offices of gastrointestinal oncologists around the country, and indeed around the world, are busier than ever because our patients are doing better," he said.

Among the report's other findings:

• Cancer mortality is improving faster among men, with drops in death rates of 2.6 percent a year compared with 1.8 percent a year for women.
  
  
• Lung cancer explains much of the gender difference. Male death rates are dropping about 2 percent a year while female death rates finally are holding steady after years of increases. Smoking rates fell for men before they did for women, so men reaped the benefits sooner.
  
  
• Overall, the rate of new cancer diagnoses is inching down about one-half a percent a year.
  
  
• New breast cancer diagnoses are dropping about 3.5 percent a year, a previously reported decline due either to women shunning postmenopausal hormone therapy or to fewer getting mammograms.

The report includes a special focus on cancer among American Indians and Alaskan natives. Overall, cancer incidence is lower among those populations than among white Americans, except for cancers of the stomach, liver, kidney, gallbladder and cervix.

The annual report is a collaboration of the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

[alphaa10-2009]

hawhksprings said, "It''s Bush''''s fault!"
---
Of course, it is Bush''s fault. Bush and/or the GOP for 12 years obstructed delivery of a viable public health system to the American people. Today, some 50 million of us lack medical insurance or medical care. Not to mention the 8-10 million American kids whose medical coverage Bush and the GOP now oppose in Congress because it is "politically incorrect".

In public health, prevention is far cheaper than cure. In the context of cancer prevention, alone, think of the millions of lives and billions of dollars saved if every one of us had regular medical checkups.

Currently, so-called "private" healthcare services only dire need or insurance coverage. That means the taxpayer ends up paying for the difference-- and paying more for people in far worse shape than had they prevented their condition with regular checkups and care..

Bush and the GOP called their system "privatization" but their results invite derision-- when our seniors cannot afford the drugs they need, and the rest of us cannot afford the health care we need, is this why we pay 2.5 times the average of what the EU pays for comparable care-- and with poorer results? We fall behind even Cuba in infant mortality.

[s1ckd09]

U think this drop in cancer is great, listen to this.
The American congress should wakeup and help fund that PROMISING NEW VACCINE in ENGLAND they are working on right now to remove all the harden plaque from your arteries. They need funding for research big time. They are funding it with just a few million dollars. This is one best COST SAVING items I have ever seen.

But, the American congress only spends money on things that benefits all their big donators that fills up their own pockets. The hell with the American People they give ashit less about us.

It makes me sick to think of how all the American Congress throws money away and there are so many great causes out there trying to survive on peanuts that would really help the American people.

But, the good thing is that because of their own stupidity there are a lot of Congressmen and their own families that are going to die right along with the rest of us.

-----------------------------------------

Posted by unohappyguy at 01:19 PM : Oct 15, 2007

Yeah, that free health care in Britain is great, ain''t it? Sure, free health care would be nice, but somebody has to be able to make the medical advances, and that won''t come from a socialized system.

[ssmithoc]

Now some serious work in removing airborne tire and brake waste in the air needs to be done.

This drop is solely due to outsourcing US manufacturing producing products with asbestos and other toxic materials. Of course our outsourcing now kill folks in those other countries.

The media needs to focus on what really causes cancer in America (tires, brakes and construction material usage), The anti-smoking prostitutes have to shut up so people realize their excessive exposure to tire/brake waste, construction and manufacturing waste kills us. It''s not the insignificant amount of H20 soluble plant waste (7-10,000 mgs) a smoker creates in a year.

A car with standard wheels produces 7-10,000 mgs of non-soluble toxic waste (with asbestos) every 10 miles or so. Trucks can produce that in less than a mile. Oversizing vehicles and wheels must stop.

Breath deep. If you live next to a major street or highway you and your family have ingested more carcinogens in a month or so than a smoker will from first-hand smoke in a lifetime...

Auto and road workers that don''t use respirators, gloves and protective clothing and don''t scrub before they leave work can simply come home and hug (contaminate) their children or wives to death.

Tobacco has simply been a smoke screen - a media diversion for auto, insurance and anti-smoking group advertisers.

[hawksprings]

It''s Bush''s fault!

[godofredo29]

You know, if they would make it a guideline that men in the at risk age range for testicular cancer got an ultrasound (a relatively cheap and safe procedure)once a year like at risk women get mammograms the survival rate would reach nearly 100%. But, it''s all about priorities and guys are not one of them.

[baileyccc]

Big Pharma wants the credit here for the drop but things like women not taking Hormone Replacement Therapy and refusing the dangerous mammograms. Why doesn''t the American Cancer Society tell the public to take Vitamin D like Canada and the rest of the world, oh wait, let me guess, the FDA doesn''t have suffient evidence to make a determination if it is safe to take Vitamin D.

[red1530]

What evidence do you have drinu that it is propaganda and not a fact.

[drinuk]

More Big Pharma BS and propoganda

[rmsdm4]

I thought our health care was no good and we need hill to save us?

[sdogood-2009]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/15/health/main3366114.shtml
Cheers for Ms. Couric