Good news from the American Cancer Society’s annual report “Cancer Facts & Figures” ““ the overall mortality rate from cancer in the U.S. is continuing to fall. Down from its peak in 1991, cancer deaths fell yet again in 2014.
Approximately 1.5 million fewer people in the U.S. died from cancer last year, which is 22 percent lower than the 1991 peak. Even better news ““ the rates are expected to fall further in 2015.
According to the report, a total of 1,658,370 new cancer cases and 589,430 deaths from cancer are projected to occur in the U.S. in 2015. New cancer cases decreased by 1.8 percent per year in men and stayed the same in women during the past five years. In the same span, cancer death rates decreased by 1.8 percent per year in men and 1.4 percent in women.
Cancer is still responsible for almost a quarter of all U.S. deaths, making it the second leading cause of death overall, according to the report. The mortality rates differ by state, with decreases generally higher in the northeastern United States and much lower in the south.
Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, due to their high numbers of smokers and rate of lung cancer, tend to see more cancer deaths. Kentucky, according to a 2014 Gallup poll, has the highest smoking rate in the country, with 30.2 percent of residents identifying themselves as smokers. Ohio has the fifth-highest rate (25.0 percent) and Indiana seventh (24.7).
Mortality rates for breast cancer are down 35 percent from the 1991 peak rate, while prostate and colon cancer death rates are each down by nearly half as a result of early detection and treatment, said the most recent ACS report.
Despite the good news, the cancer society had its warnings, too.
Prostate, lung, and colon cancers will account for an estimated one-half of all cancer in men in the coming year, with prostate cancer alone accounting for about one-quarter of new diagnoses, ACS projects. Among women, the most commonly diagnosed cancers are expected to be breast, lung and colon. Breast cancer alone is expected to account for 29 percent of all new diagnoses.
