Researchers
are reporting the largest-ever one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate,
and they are crediting advances in lung-tumor treatments
By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer January
8, 2020, 9:30 AM
NEW YORK
-- Researchers on Wednesday reported the largest-ever one-year decline in the
U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they credited to advances in lung-tumor
treatments.
The
overall cancer death rate has been falling about 1.5% a year since 1991. It
fell 2.2% from 2016 to 2017, according to the new American Cancer Society
report. That’s the largest drop ever seen in national cancer statistics going
back to 1930, said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author.
“It’s
absolutely driven by lung cancer,” which accounts for about a quarter of all
cancer deaths, she said. Take lung cancer out of the mix, and the 2017 rate
drop is 1.4%, she added.
Government
researchers previously reported a slightly lower drop in the cancer death rate
for the same period. But the Cancer Society calculates the death rate
differently, and on Wednesday said the decline was larger — and record-setting.
Most lung
cancer cases are tied to smoking, and decades of declining smoking rates led to
falling rates of lung cancer illnesses and deaths.
But the
drop in deaths seems to have been accelerated by recent lung cancer treatment
advances, Siegel said.
Experts
mainly credit advances in treatment. Topping the list are refinements in
surgery, better diagnostic scanning, and more precise use of radiation.
They also
celebrate the impact of newer drugs. Genetic testing can now identify specific
cancer cell mutations, which allow more targeted therapy using newer
pharmaceuticals that are a step beyond traditional chemotherapy.
“It’s an
exciting time,” said Dr. Jyoti Patel, a Northwestern University lung cancer
expert.
Even
patients with late-stage cancers are surviving for several years — rather than
months — after treatment starts, she said. “That was very, very uncommon a decade
ago,” she said.
New
immunotherapy drugs could accelerate the death rate decline, Patel said.
Cancer
Society researchers also found:
— The
overall cancer death rate fell by nearly 30% from 1991 through 2017.
— Death
rates from one type of skin cancer dropped even more dramatically than lung
cancer — falling 7% a year recently. That decline in melanoma patients is
attributed to drugs that came on the market about nine years ago.
—
Declines in the death rates from prostate, breast and colon cancer are slowing,
for a range of reasons.
— The
rising liver cancer death rate seems to have leveled off somewhat. That may be
related to better treatment of hepatitis C infections, which are tied to about
25% of liver cancer cases, Siegel said.
The
Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely
responsible for all content.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/cancer-group-finds-biggest-year-drop-us-death-68140461
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