Cancer status report: New cases, death rates decline

Updated 3m ago
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

The rates of new cancer cases and deaths continue to fall modestly each year, evidence that the nation has made progress in reducing tobacco use, preventing cancer, finding cancer early and treating it more effectively, according to the "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer," released Monday night.

The rate of new cancer diagnoses fell by slightly less than 1% a year from 1999 to 2006, and the death rate fell by 1.6% a year, says the report from the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

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"Things are slowly getting better, but they are not anywhere near where we want them to be," says Edward Benz, director of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Nearly 1.5 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and more than 562,000 will die from it, the cancer society says.

The rate of detection for new breast cancer cases has fallen slightly faster – at a rate of 2% a year – although that may not be an entirely good thing, the report says. The decline could signal that fewer women are developing the disease, perhaps because of a large drop in the number taking hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms. Or, it could reflect a drop in the number of women who get mammograms, says the cancer society's Elizabeth Ward.

The cancer institute says mammography rates fell from 70% in 2000 to 66% in 2005.

The report's findings come in the wake of an uproar over new breast-screening recommendations from a government-appointed panel, which said women could safely get fewer mammograms. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said last month that women in their 40s don't need routine mammograms but could decide whether to have the tests after talking to their doctors.

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The group said women ages 50 to 74 should have mammograms every other year instead of annually.

The new report paints an optimistic picture of the fight against colorectal cancer. With expanded screening and use of recently approved drugs, mortality rates from the disease could fall by as much as 50% by 2020, the report says. Unlike mammograms, which find cancer early, colonoscopies allow doctors to prevent cancer by removing precancerous polyps. About half of adults over age 50 have been screened for colorectal cancer, the report says.

"We are reaping the benefits now of what we have been recommending in regards to cancer screening," says Therese Bevers, medical director of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's prevention center.

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