Annual Report Shows Overall Decline in U.S. Cancer Incidence and Death Rates.(Statistical Data Included)

2001 JUN 21 - (NewsRx Network) -- The rates for new cancer cases and deaths for all cancers combined continued to decline in the United States, according to a report that includes new data for the period between 1992 to 1998.

The report is by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR); the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS); the American Cancer Society (ACS); and the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). A feature section of the report focuses on a dozen cancers whose overall rates are increasing.

The "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1973-1998, Featuring Cancers with Recent Increasing Trends" was published in the June 6, 2001, Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Howe et al., vol. 93(11):824-842).

"These findings highlight the progress we've made against cancer but also underscore the critical need for research and for equitably applying what we already know to sustain this progress," said NCI director Richard D. Klausner, MD.

The report shows that the incidence for all cancers combined - the number of new cancer cases per 100,000 persons per year - declined on average 1.1% per year between 1992 and 1998. This overall trend reversed a pattern of increasing incidence from 1973 to 1992. Most of the decline can be attributed to a 2.9% yearly decline in white males and a 3.1% yearly decline in black males.

"I am most excited to see that rates of new cases of cancer declined in the 1990s for both black and white men. It will take time to tell, but this could be a sign that the disparities among racial and ethnic groups are lessening," said James S. Marks, MD, director of CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

"More good news is the continuing fall in cancer death rates by 1.6% per year for men and 0.8% per year for women between 1992 to 1998," said John R. Seffrin, PhD, American Cancer Society. "Particularly welcome is that the largest decrease - 2.5% per year - occurred in black men, who bear the heaviest cancer burden."