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Medicine United States Science

Death Rates Are Declining For Many Common Cancers In US (statnews.com) 49

Posted by BeauHD from the it's-not-all-good-news-though dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Stat News: Death rates are declining for more than half of the most common forms of cancer in the U.S., according to a sweeping annual analysis released Thursday. The new report -- released by the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other collaborators -- found that between 2014 and 2018, death rates dropped for 11 out of 19 of the most common cancers among men and 14 of the 20 most prevalent cancers among women.

Accelerating declines in lung cancer deaths may account for much of the overall progress seen in recent years, the authors of the report said. Over the past two decades, the death rate for lung cancer has declined even faster than the rate at which patients are diagnosed with the disease. And while part of the early success in preventing lung cancer can be attributed to the massive drop in smoking rates, the authors note the most recent downward trends seem to correspond with the approval of new treatments for non-small cell lung cancer that improved the likelihood of survival. Death rates from melanoma also saw an accelerated decline in the past decade, despite a growing number of diagnoses. Like in lung cancer, authors point to the introduction of novel treatments around the same time as the turnaround on the death rate. New targeted and immune checkpoint inhibitors were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011, one year before major declines in death rates were seen in women and two years before they were seen in men.

While the report showed improved survival rates for many patients over recent years, others, such as prostate, colorectal, or female breast cancers, have seen progress stalled or stopped. Breast cancer continues to be one of the three deadliest cancers for women of all races, and the most frequently fatal cancer for Hispanic women. While the rates of death from breast cancer are declining, the pace of the decline has slowed over the past two decades, according to the report. And across the board, racial health disparities persist. Black women and white women are diagnosed with breast cancer at similar rates, but the mortality rate for Black women is 40% higher. Overall, cancer is more common among white individuals than Black individuals, but Black people die from cancer at higher rates. [The report] emphasized the importance of preventive measures for certain cancers, noting that while cancers related to smoking have continued to decrease, those related to excess body weight have increased. Early and consistent access to screenings has also been critical, as demonstrated by the apparent effect of adapted screening guidelines for colorectal cancer.
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Death Rates Are Declining For Many Common Cancers In US More

Death Rates Are Declining For Many Common Cancers In US

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  • Are they actually declining? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bluegutang ( 2814641 ) on Friday July 09, 2021 @01:08AM (#61564825)

    "Survival rates" are generally calculated based on how many people are alive 5 years after diagnosis. The catch is that nowadays, we have developed new ways (like mammograms and colonoscopies) of detecting cancers early on. So if we catch cancer 2 years earlier now on average, the 5 year survival rate is what previously would have been the 3 year survival rate, which is obviously higher. So maybe we are not actually saving lives, but the improvement in survival rates is a statistical artifact. Or maybe, despite that effect, there is also progress in real survival rates.

    Here is a good overview of the subject for starters. [slatestarcodex.com]

    • Re:Are they actually declining? (Score:5, Informative)

      by tinkerton ( 199273 ) on Friday July 09, 2021 @02:02AM (#61564915)

      I think early detection does increase the chance of survival and in the case of melanoma this is a very strong pattern. Early detection generally means the tumor is still superficial (they use the thickness to classify the risk) and has not had the chance to spread.
      A factor which is far more problematic is the benefit of often very costly treatment:
      https://blogs.scientificameric... [scientificamerican.com]

    • That is insightful, but isn't the article about counting dead people and the trends in those numbers?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Early detection helps significantly.

      The earlier it's detected, the smaller it is, and the less chance it's metastasized beyond the local area. Having 1 small blob of cancerous tissue is extremely easy to treat - removal if possible, if not, many treatments can be done to kill those cells.

      It's why there are 4 stages, and catching a cancer in Stage 1 for a lot of cancers is practically 100% survival because they're tiny, easy to treat and completely get rid of.

    • So if we catch cancer 2 years earlier now on average, the 5 year survival rate is what previously would have been the 3 year survival rate

      The 3-year survival rate is higher than the 5-year survival rate, since that's a shorter period of time for people to die.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pesho ( 843750 )
      That's a clever explanation but I don't think time of detection has a significant effect in this case. They are looking at data between 2014 and 2018. There shouldn't be a significant difference in the screening rates for most cancer in that period. Lung cancer and melanoma are easy to explain with reduced smoking rates and use of sun blockers. New biological therapies have also been very effective against melanoma, which until recently did not have effective therapy. The biologics have also effected surviv

  • More interestingly (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday July 09, 2021 @03:49AM (#61565101)

    Death rates are declining despite the appalling cost of cancer treatment in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if the survivors are alive but skint.

  • Is it because the treatment got better or because smoking was banned almost everywhere, salt and trans-fat reductions and so on?

    • Of the three, only one of them is a strong cause of cancer. Of the three, only two of them actually cause illness. If you drink enough water, salt in relatively moderate (higher than recommended) quantities will not harm you. Unless you specifically have sodium-sensitive hypertension (not everyone does). It's true that excess salt intake makes you feel less thirsty and your body will conserve water but you can drink the water anyway. Salting food enough to taste good at home should be fine - but packag

  • Thank goodness for news like this. Cancer is something that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I hope someday it can be eradicated altogether, or at least turned into a non-life-threatening inconvenience.

  • Why are any increasing? (Score:3)

    by dmay34 ( 6770232 ) on Friday July 09, 2021 @09:08AM (#61565697)

    It's not surprising to me that fatality rates of most cancers are declining. Billions and billions of dollars in research and development of new treatments are spend each year, I would hope we were getting some benefit from all that investment.

      The more interesting question to me is what about the ones that AREN'T declining? In fact, according to the study some fatality rates are growing quite quickly. Why?

    • Treatments for other diseases. You can't die from cancer at 70 if you died from a heart attack at 50.

  • Unlike Covid, which has a low enough death rate that deniers can play dumb, smoking causes lung cancer at a high enough rate that a statistically significant number of its biggest deniers are Darwin'd out of the equation. Case and point: Rush Limbaugh (a very popular Republican). He fought really hard to denigrate anyone who claimed smoking was dangerous and tried to preserve "smoking rights."

    References:
    Limbaugh on smoking: https://www.nydailynews.com/ne... [nydailynews.com]
    Article in Cigar Aficianado magazine: https://www.c [cigaraficionado.com]

  • Those weakened by cancer will likely killed by Covid in the last few years.

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