Cancer Cases and Death Rate Continue to Decline

In the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2006, Brenda K. Edwards, from the National Cancer Institute (Maryland, USA), and colleagues present data to document that numbers of new cancer cases and the cancer death rate continue to fall in the United States.  The team explains that these decreases were driven largely by declines in both incidence and death rates for the three most common cancers in men (namely lung, prostate and colorectal), and for two of the three leading cancers in women (that is, breast cancer and colorectal ). They encourage that: “These declines are projected to continue if risk factor modification, screening, and treatment remain at current rates, but they could be accelerated further with favorable trends in risk factors and higher utilization of screening and optimal treatment.”