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Report: US Cancer Death Rates Continue to Drop

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Special feature section on human papillomavirus–associated cancers

Overall cancer death rates continued to decline in the United States among both men and women, in all major racial and ethnic groups, and for all of the most common cancer sites, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2009.

However, the report also shows a continued increase in death rates from 2000 through 2009 for melanoma of the skin (among men only) and for cancers of the liver, pancreas, and uterus.

In a special feature section on human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers, the report shows increasing incidence rates for HPV-associated oropharyngeal and anal cancers. Furthermore, vaccination coverage levels in the US during 2008 and 2010 remained low among adolescent girls, according to the report.

“The continuing drop in cancer mortality over the past two decades is reason to cheer,” said John R. Seffrin, PhD, American Cancer Society (ACS) chief executive officer. “The challenge we now face is how to continue those gains in the face of new obstacles, like obesity and HPV infections.”

The report also includes the following information:

  • Death rates among men decreased for 10 of the 17 most common cancers (colon and rectum, kidney, larynx, leukemia, lung, myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, oral cavity and pharynx, prostate, and stomach) during the years 2000 through 2009
  • Death rates among women decreased for 15 of the 18 most common cancers (bladder, brain and other nervous system, breast, cervix, colon and rectum, esophagus, gallbladder, kidney, leukemia, lung, myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, oral cavity and pharynx, ovary, and stomach) during the years 2000 through 2009

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas R. Frieden, MD, said, “While this report shows that we are making progress in the fight against cancer on some fronts, we still have much work to do, particularly when it comes to preventing cancer.”

Coauthored by researchers from the ACS, the CDC, the National Cancer Institute, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the report appears online prior to printing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Source: NCI.