Chicago area woman who was diagnosed young warns cancer does not discriminate
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new study shows the number of people dying from cancer is on the decline, but more women and younger adults are being diagnosed with it.
The annual report from the American Cancer Society, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, found the cancer mortality rate declined 34% from 1991 to 2022 in the United States.
While overall cancer deaths are in decline, thanks to factors like earlier detection and better treatments, that's not true for all cancers. Death rates are increasing for certain types, including oral, pancreatic, uterine and liver cancers, the report found.
The report also found that more women and young adults are having cancer, a shift. Cancer cases in women aged 50 to 64 have surpassed those in men, for example. And cancer rates in women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts, which is up from 51% in 2002.
Lindsey Twardak is a woman under 50 and a breast cancer survivor.
"It's really important to understand that cancer does not discriminate," she said.
Twardak was diagnosed at the age of 32 in March of 2022.
"I had no idea that somebody who, you know, was in their early 30s, felt healthy, had been working out, eating right—and then out of nowhere, to receive a cancer diagnosis?" Twardak said. "It was absolutely devastating."
Twardak learned she was cancer-free in December that same year.
"I look back on the time, and while it was like really challenging, I'm like, wow, I did a lot," she said, "and I overcame that."
The American Cancer Society expressed concern that some people may have missed screenings at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Well, with women, there's some concern that at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of people were not going for their annual mammograms and the preventative testing, so the concern is we're starting to see some of the impact from that with more women being diagnosed with breast cancer," said Dr. Shikha Jain, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Jain said more colon cancer and breast cancer are being detected in the younger population.
"There's concerns that some of that could be due to an increase in processed foods in the diet, increase in red meat," Dr. Jain said. "We're also seeing an increase in lung cancer in women."
The report also highlights the lagging progress in pancreatic cancer, which is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Both incidence and mortality rates are increasing for pancreatic cancer, and the five-year survival rate is 8% for the nine out of 10 people who are diagnosed.