Annual US Cancer Death Rates Drop for the First Time in 70 Years

Thanks to advances in technology and pharmaceutical treatments, the medical community may be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in the "war on cancer" that has been waged for hundreds of years. In 1930, nationwide data began to be compiled about death rates from certain conditions. Since that time, the death rate from cancer in the United States has steadily been rising each year.

For more than a decade, statisticians compiling the records have estimated annual drops of about 1% each year in the annual death rate from cancer, but the annual number of cancer deaths was still rising each year because the population was growing faster than the annual cancer death rate was falling. But according to a recently completed review of U.S. death certificates by the National Center for Health Statistics, there were 359 fewer deaths from cancer recorded in 2003 (total of 556,902) than the year before (557,271).

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, says the medical community is overjoyed by the news. The public has been growing increasingly frustrated because of seemingly slow progress in the so-called "war on cancer." Despite years of scientific research, clinical trials, and new screening procedures, treatments for cancer including radiation and chemotherapy have remained harsh and debilitating, and total deaths have continued to rise. "It’s no surprise this dip in numbers would be greeted with joy by the ‘commanders,’ if you will, in the war on cancer," Caplan said.

Researchers attribute the falling death rates to declines in smoking, as well as the advances in earlier detection and treatment of tumors. American Cancer Society experts, who analyzed the federal data, say that death rates have fallen for lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer, the most common types of cancer. Those four together account for 51% of all cancer deaths in the United States. Decreases have been attributed to better screening methods, better treatments, and more targeted medications.

The lung cancer death rate for men has been dropping about 2% per year for over 10 years, because of declines in smoking. The lung cancer death rate for women, however, has stayed about the same. Researchers believe that statistic may be due to the fact that smoking was primarily done by men decades ago, and women took up smoking later. In fact, the total number of cancer deaths among women in 2003 actually rose by 409 from the year before. But cancer deaths among men fell by 778 people, which resulted in the net decrease of 369 total cancer deaths.

Although the small drop in death rates is exciting news to the medical community, it’s possible the rates will rise again when 2004 data is tabulated, so researchers are hoping that the declining trend continues. Cancer is diagnosed more often in older people than in younger people, so the aging population of Baby Boomers may cause statistics to rise a little. But hopefully, with improvements in treatment along with the healthier lifestyles implemented by many Americans over the last 20 years or so, the annual death rates from cancer in the United States will continue to decline.