Though heart disease remains the leading cause of death, little ahead of cancer, death rate from both the causes are decline for almost 25 years, heart disease has dropped at a faster rate.
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The report also features an analysis of leading causes of death by state and finds that, even as cancer remains the second leading cause of death nationwide, steep drops in deaths from heart disease have made cancer the leading cause of death in 21 states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. The decline in the past 20 years has been driven by the continuous drop in deaths for four major cancer types: breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate.
But cancer moved up to the top slot in 22 states in 2014. In the new study, ACS estimates 1.68 million new cancer cases and about 600,000 deaths in 2016. It is published early online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
Overall cancer incidence is stable in women and declining by 3.1 per cent per year in men over that time period.
The cancer death rate in the US has plummeted by 23 percent since 1991, new figures show.
Despite the progress, mortality rates for certain cancers are increasing. The decline is attributed to continuous fall in mortality rates due to lung, breast, prostate and colon/rectum cancers. Brawley said better treatments and screening methods are also responsible for fewer deaths from cancer. I would point out that there is no debate that mammography saves lives – and if you look at women over the age of 45, about a third to 40 percent are not up to date on mammography.
“The most common causes of cancer death are cancers of the lung and bronchus, prostate, and colorectum in men and lung and bronchus, breast, and colorectum in women”, the report said. In 2016, an estimated 10,380 children will be diagnosed with cancer and 1,250 will die from it. However, some of that increase stems from overdiagnosis due to advanced imaging techniques.
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It might sound like good news that the disease itself has declined in terms of deaths in the past 30 years, but this does not tell the whole story. The organization says that it is becoming the number one killer replacing heart disease is a reminder that cancer is still a huge problem, and said the fight is still not over against the deadly disease. 24 percent of all deaths in 2012 were due to heart disease, which turns out to be 599,711 people.
