U.S. Cancer incidence and mortality are mostly stable or decreasing

The rate of people being diagnosed or killed by cancer in the U.S. is stable or decreasing for men and women, according to a new report. "For the main cancers, it's really pretty much good news, incidence and mortality is decreasing," said Recinda Sherman, an author of the new report from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) in Springfield, Illinois.
A highlight of the report is that for the first time it breaks breast cancer into specific groups based on how it responds to hormones, said Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance and health service research at the American Cancer Society (ACS). Triple-negative breast cancer, which is the most aggressive type, represents about 13 percent of breast cancers for all women, but represents about 23 percent of breast cancers among black women. Because triple-negative breast cancer is less likely to be caught by mammography, Sherman said there may be opportunities to target black women with messaging about that specific type of breast cancer. The analysis, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the latest in a series of annual reports on cancer compiled since 1998 by the NAACCR, the ACS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute. The organizations found decreases over the past 20 years in the number of new cases for several of the major cancers diagnosed among men, including prostate, lung, colon, stomach, brain and throat cancers. There were also decreases among colon, ovary, cervix, oral and stomach cancers among women.
Overall, cancer diagnoses decreased by 1.8 percent each year between 2007 and 2011 among men, and remained stable among women.