US winning the war against cancer
A new scientific report says US cancer deaths are dropping fast – by an average of 2.1% a year between 2002 and 2004 – thanks especially to advances in battling colorectal cancer.
While colorectal cancer remains the number two cancer killer, the death rates fell by nearly 5% a year among men and 4.5% among women.
The overall reduction in cancer deaths is nearly double the trend observed in the period 1993 to 2001, when deaths dropped at a rate of 1.1% per year.
The report’s co-author, Dr Elizabeth Ward, of the American Cancer Society, pointed out that the decline has been achieved, even though only about half of those over age 50 ever received a rectal screening. “If we’re seeing such great impact even at 50% screening rates, we think it could be much greater if we could get more of the population tested,” she said.
Besides cancer prevention, experts also recognised the importance of new drugs and treatments for cancer, once it is detected, as having a major impact on reduced mortality. The new treatments are credited with doubling survival time for even seriously advanced cancer patients. More than six important cancer drugs were in use today, compared to just one effective colon cancer drug a decade ago, they pointed out.
Other highlights from the report include:
· The overall cancer death rate is dropping faster among men, with a drop in death rates of 2.6% a year compared with 1.8% a year for women.
· With the No. 1 cancer killer, lung cancer, male death rates are falling about 2% a year while female death rates are no longer worsening, but finally are holding steady after years of increases.
· Among all cancers, the rate of new cancer diagnoses is slowly declining at a rate of about one-half a percent per year.
· With breast cancer, the study echoed earlier reports of a notable decline thanks to fewer women adopting a post-menopausal hormone therapy regimen. These diagnoses are dropping about 3.5% a year.
