Cancer Rates Fall In Last Couple Of Decades

Cancer Rates Fall In Last Couple Of Decades

The American Cancer Society has released some data that shows deaths related to the terrible disease to have fallen by a whopping 20 percent in the last 20 years.

The study shows with data gathered from 1991 to 2009 that no less than 1.2 million lives were saved with 152.900 just in 2009.

Rebecca Siegel, MPH and director of surveillance at the ACS said  “The big picture is that progress is steady, and for the four major cancer sites, progress is even more rapid”.

By four major sites she means breast, prostate, colorectum and lung. She also added “Death rates peaked in the 1990s, and we have seen a 1% decline per year, but we are seeing much larger declines for the most common cancers.”

More precisely, colorectal, breast and lung cancer have dropped by a staggering 30 percent while prostate cancer has dropped by 40 percent.

Some of the reasons for these significant drops may be the better treatments administered, coupled with earlier detection and in the case of lung cancer, less smoking, especially in public spaces.

There isn't just positive news, unfortunately, as thyroid and liver cancer are on the rise and deaths related to the terrible disease are still expected to be close to 600,000 in 2013 in the US.

Posted by George Daniels on Monday January 21 2013, 6:10 AM EST. Ref: WebMD. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0