This is great news so I wanted to share with our readers and providers.
By Amy Orciari Herman
Edited by Susan Sadoughi, MD, and Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, FACP, DFASAM
The mortality rate from cancer in the U.S. had its largest 1-year decline ever from 2016 to 2017 — a 2.2% decrease — according to the latest cancer statistics from the American Cancer Society.
The reduction was largely attributable to a drop in lung cancer mortality, but even so, lung cancer still accounted for the most cancer deaths in 2017. Among the other findings, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians:
- Deaths from the next three most common cancers — colorectal, breast, and prostate — showed large drops between 1991 and 2017. However, after 2008, reductions in deaths from female breast cancer and colorectal cancer slowed, and prostate cancer deaths plateaued.
- Deaths from melanoma showed a large decline, owing in part to novel immunotherapies. From 2013 to 2017, the melanoma mortality rate in adults under age 65 fell by 7% per year.
- The large decline (29%) in overall cancer deaths between 1991 and 2017 resulted an estimated 2.9 million deaths averted.
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