U.S. Cancer Deaths Dropping

Although the population in the United States is aging, it seems that deaths due to cancer are dropping, say researchers. This decline has been occurring over the past 50 years.

A study published recently in the journal Cancer Research said:

Age-specific cancer mortality rates have been steadily declining in the United States since the early 1950s, beginning with children and young adults and now including all age groups. During the second half of the 20th century, each successive decade of births from 1925 to 1995 experienced a lower risk of cancer death than its predecessor at virtually every age for which such a comparison can be made. A major decline in cancer mortality has been occurring in the United States for the past 50 years, affecting birth cohorts born as long as 80 years ago.

There are many reasons that could be attributed to this decline in death, ranging from efforts towards cancer prevention, advances in cancer detection, and better cancer treatments.

For example, certain childhood cancers, such as leukemia or bone cancer, did not have a good survival rate in the mid-1900s, yet now, there are many adults who are childhood cancer survivors.

Colonoscopies have been able to detect many precancerous lesions, thereby avoiding the development of colon cancer. And, when colon cancer is discovered, the increasing number of screening colonoscopies is detecting the cancers early, when there still is a high chance of total recovery.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that we’re close to being free of the disease. Cancer is still the number two killer, after heart disease, says the World Health Organization.

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