Siegel et al. (2019) present a review of cancer incidence and mortality statistics in American over recent decades. Their key findings were:
Over the past decade of data, the cancer incidence rate (2006‐2015) was stable in women and declined by approximately 2% per year in men, whereas the cancer death rate (2007‐2016) declined annually by 1.4% and 1.8%, respectively. The overall cancer death rate dropped continuously from 1991 to 2016 by a total of 27%, translating into approximately 2,629,200 fewer cancer deaths than would have been expected if death rates had remained at their peak.
The authors used data from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) and the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) to measure incidence and data from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and North American Association of Central Cancer Registries’ (NAACCR).
The most common cancers for men were prostate (20% of all incident male cancers), lung (13%), color & rectum (9%). For women the most common cancers were breast (30%), lung (13%), colon & rectum (8%). For male, deaths from lung (24%), prostate (10%), and colon and rectum (9%); for female the top cancers in terms of number of death are lung (23%), breast (15%), colon & rectum (8%).
Thanks for sharing such an informative article, Jason! It’s an undeniable fact that cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is heartening to see progress being made in finding more effective treatment options. The only way we will win the war against cancer is to continue to research on effective cures for the various forms of this disease. Staying in touch with the latest developments can certainly prove useful too.