Jan. 5, 2017 / 4:06 PM
CST / Updated Jan. 5, 2017 / 4:05 PM CST
By Maggie Fox
Fewer
Americans are dying of cancer. The latest numbers from the American Cancer
Society show a 25 percent drop in cancer deaths since 1991, the peak year for
cancer deaths.
Cancer
rates are holding fairly steady, but better screening and better treatments
mean that people who get cancer are living longer, the American Cancer Society
says in its annual report. And as fewer and fewer people smoke, cancer death
rates follow.
It
projects that nearly 1.7 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2017
and 600,000 will die of it.
“The
continuing drops in the cancer death rate are a powerful sign of the potential
we have to reduce cancer’s deadly toll,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical
officer for the group.
"Upcoming
decisions on the Affordable Care Act and Medicare, as well as funding for the
National Cancer Institute, will have a big influence on the pace of progress
for patients well into the future.”
“From
1991 to 2014, the overall cancer death rate dropped 25 percent, translating to
approximately 2,143,200 fewer cancer deaths than would have been expected if
death rates had remained at their peak,” the report reads.
“In
2017, 1,688,780 new cancer cases and 600,920 cancer deaths are projected to
occur in the United States.”
Cancer
remains the number two cause of death in the United States, behind heart
disease. About 40 percent of U.S. men and 37 percent of women can expect to get
a cancer diagnosis in their lifetimes.
The
report credits the 2010 Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, with
saving lives. The law requires insurance companies to pay the full cost of many
cancer screenings, including mammograms and colonoscopies. It also got health
insurance to 20 million people who had no coverage before..
It’s
especially helped minorities, the report said.
“Although
the cancer death rate was 15 percent higher in blacks than in whites in 2014,
increasing access to care as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act may expedite the narrowing racial gap; from 2010 to 2015, the
proportion of blacks who were uninsured halved, from 21 percent to 11 percent,
as it did for Hispanics (31 percent to 16 percent),” the report reads.
“Over
the past three decades, the five-year relative survival rate for all cancers
combined has increased 20 percentage points among whites and 24 percentage
points among blacks.”
Dr.
Richard Schilsky, chief medical officer at the American Society for Clinical
Oncology, agreed.
“One
big question is how the next administration and Congress will capitalize on
today’s momentum," Schilsky said.
"Upcoming
decisions on the Affordable Care Act and Medicare, as well as funding for the
National Cancer Institute, will have a big influence on the pace of progress
for patients well into the future.”
Targeted
treatments, including engineered immune system proteins called monoclonal
antibodies, have helped a lot, the report says.
For
example, only 41 percent of people diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in
the 1970s lived five years or more. In 2012, 71 percent did. Five-year survival
went from 22 percent in the 1970s for chronic myeloid leukemia to 66 percent in
2012.
The four
biggest cancer killers for 2017:
·
Lung cancer, which will be diagnosed in 222,500 people and will
kill 155,870 in 2017
·
Colorectal cancer, which will be diagnosed in 135,000 people and
will kill 50,260
·
Breast cancer, which will be diagnosed in 255,180 people and
will kill 41,070
·
Prostate cancer, which will be diagnosed in 161,360 men and will
kill 26,730
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