Each year, the American Cancer Society
(ACS) estimates the numbers of new cancer cases and deaths that will occur in
the United States in the current year and compiles the most recent data on
cancer incidence, mortality, and survival.
The ACS collects and reports data from
several registries such as SEER, CDC, NPCR, NACCR and NCHS. In 2016, 1,685,210 new cancer cases and
595,690 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States. Overall
cancer incidence trends are stable in women, but declining by 3.1% per year in
men (from 2009-2012), much of which is because of recent rapid declines in
prostate cancer diagnoses. The cancer
death rate has dropped by 23% since 1991, translating to more than 1.7 million
deaths averted through 2012. The decline is attributed to decreasing
smoking rates and advances in cancer detection, treatment and prevention.
Deaths from lung, breast, prostate, and colon/rectum cancers drove
overall declines. Death rates for female
breast cancer have declined 36% from peak rates in 1989, while deaths from
prostate and colorectal cancers have each dropped about 50% from their peak.
Meanwhile, lung cancer death rates declined 38% between 1990 and 2012 among
males and 13% between 2002 and 2012 among females, due to a decline in the use
of tobacco.
In spite of this progress, death rates
are increasing for cancers of the liver, pancreas, and uterine corpus. Among
children and adolescents (aged birth-19 years), brain cancer has surpassed
leukemia as the leading cause of cancer death because of the dramatic
therapeutic advances against leukemia.
Despite of these remarkable
improvements cancer remains the leading cause of death in 21 states, primarily
due to exceptionally large reductions in death from heart disease. Accelerating
progress against cancer requires novel approaches in diagnosis, treatment and the application of existing cancer control knowledge across all
segments of the population
CA: A Cancer J Clin Vol 66, 1, 7-30,
Jan-Feb 2016
