U.S. cancer death rates dip but concerns linger
A new report out Wednesday offers a both promising and worrisome summary about the state of cancer in the U.S. and around the world.
The U.S. cancer death rate dropped by 35 percent between 1991 and 2014 for children and by 25 percent for adults, according to the American Association for Cancer Research's seventh annual Cancer Progress Report. The bottom line: The report says 2.1 million deaths from cancer were prevented.
On a more granular level: Between 2010 and 2014, overall cancer death rates dipped 1.8 percent every year for U.S. men, 1.4 percent per year for U.S. women and 1.6 percent each year for children ages 0 to 14.
Still, cancer remains a formidable health threat in the U.S. More than 600,920 people are expected to die due to cancer this year. New cancer cases are expected to reach 1.7 million this year, and then climb to 2.3 million come 2030.
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Across the world, deaths from cancer are rising. While there were an estimated 8.8 million cancer deaths in 2015, that's projected to reach 14.6 million by 2035, according to the report.
Immunotherapy and precision medicine have become new forms of cancer treatment, both of which are being deployed rapidly. The Food and Drug Administration's approval in May of Keytruda – a drug to treat patients who have a solid tumor with specific genetic characteristics – is just one example of precision medicine's advances.
During the Aug. 1, 2016 to July 31, 2017, period, the Food and Drug Administration approved nine new anticancer therapeutics and cleared eight previously approved anticancer therapeutics to treat new types of cancer.
The report points out, however, that cancer advances haven't been a boon to everyone, and that "cancer health disparities are some of the most pressing challenges posed by cancer that we face in the United States today."
You can pore over the report here, and check out other data about cancer research, what the organization wants from Congress and more.
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