Lung cancer rates for men continued their decline over the past 10 years, outpacing reductions of many other kinds of cancers, according to an annual multiagency report published online December 16 in Cancer.
The Annual Report to the Nation on the status of cancer, 1975-2010, also showed that death rates for lung cancer, the largest cause of cancer mortality (one in four deaths), dropped more rapidly than in previous years. The report was co-authored by investigators from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
The investigators found that lung cancer death rates for men fell by 1.9% per year between 1993 and 2005, and they fell by an even faster 2.9% per year between 2005 and 2010. For women, death rates fell 1.4% per year between 2004 and 2010, after increasing by 0.3% per year between 1995 and 2004 (Cancer, December 16, 2013).
The declines have been attributed to the decrease in cigarette smoking in the U.S., the authors wrote. The mortality reduction among women is smaller than that of men, probably due to a later decline in cigarette smoking among women.
"The sustained fall in death rates for most cancers is an important indicator of our success in controlling this large set of complex diseases but is not as fast as we'd like," said NCI Director Dr. Harold Varmus in a statement accompanying the release of the report.
The report also emphasizes the need to consider the overall health status of cancer patients in their treatment, inasmuch as other significant medical conditions can affect their survival, Varmus added.
For men, death rates fell for 11 of the 17 most common cancers: leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and cancers of the lung, prostate, colon and rectum, esophagus, kidney, stomach, myeloma, oral cavity and pharynx, and larynx. However, deaths increased for melanoma, soft-tissue cancer, and malignancies of the pancreas and liver.
For women, death rates fell for 15 of the 18 most common cancers, rising only for cancers of the uterus, pancreas, and liver, the authors stated.
