Annual report says cancer death rates in US down 22 percent

Some good news from the American Cancer Society’s annual report states that cancer deaths rates are down by 22 percent in the U.S. and are continuing to fall.

The data compiled by the ACS was published in the CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and companion piece Cancer Facts & Figures 2015. The report said that the 22 percent decrease translates to more than 1.5 million deaths avoided in the past 20 years.

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette noted that cancer death rates declined in every U.S. state from 1991 to 2011. In the South, the rates dropped by 15 percent and some states in Northeast saw an even larger decline of about 25 to 30 percent.

From 2007 to 2011, the average annual decline for men was 1.8 percent and 1.4 percent for women.

“The continuing drops we’re seeing in cancer mortality are reason to celebrate, but not to stop,” warns John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the ACS. “Cancer was responsible for nearly one in four deaths in the United States in 2011, making it the second leading cause of death overall. It is already the leading cause of death among adults aged 40 to 79 and is expected to overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death among all Americans within the next several years.”

Lung cancer is the deadliest of all cancers, but as tobacco rates in the country have declined so have the rates of death from the deadly disease.

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