|
 “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).
The type of breast cancer largely dictates which treatment approach
doctors will take, he told Reuters Health by phone. “This is really
a nutshell what is special about this annual report to the nation.”
“This is an assessment of the burden of subtypes and in the future
we’ll be able to look at these trends and see what’s going up and
what’s going down," Sherman said.
She added that the report can provide guidance in where to focus
resources to educate the public. For example, she said so-called
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.
Among children, cancer diagnosis rates continue to increase at about
0.8 percent each year over the last decade, which is a trend that
has remained steady since 1992.
For children and adults, however, overall death rates from cancer
declined.
[to top of second column] |
There are areas of concern, Sherman told Reuters Health in a phone
interview.
For example, liver cancers are increasing, likely due to an increase
in hepatitis C infections that goes back decades.
“A couple decades ago, the rate of hepatitis C infections increased
and that in turn is being reflected in liver cancer rates,” Sherman
said. Fortunately, two of the biggest risk factors for liver cancer
are hepatitis C infection and alcohol abuse, which are preventable
and treatable, she said.
There has also been an increase in uterine cancers, with a larger
increase among black women. Sherman said it’s unclear what’s behind
those trends.
There are bright spots, too. For example, lung and colorectal cancer
rates continue to improve.
The improvement in lung cancer rates is connected with the
decreasing use of tobacco, Sherman said, adding that colorectal
rates are likely tied to increased screenings among the public.
“We continue to make progress in reducing cancer death rates in the
U.S.,” said Jemal. “You can already see from the report that the
rates have been decreasing overall since the 1990s.”
Sherman also said that while the report is largely positive, cancer
remains a enormous burden to the U.S. population.
“Our work is not even close to being done, because many of these
disease are preventable,” Sherman said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/UckC33
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, online March 30, 2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
