We rarely hear good news that involves cancer, but there is a new report from the American Cancer Society that is bonafide good news.
The report shows that the cancer death rate has fallen 33% since 1991. There have been an estimated 3.8 million deaths that have been thwarted because of this significant decline. This study has been grounded in the most recent data available from 2020.
The top six causes of death in the United States are now heart disease, cancer, COVID-19, accidents, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases.
Dr. Otis Brawley is an oncology professor at Johns Hopkins University and he is the former chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. He said in a statement to CNN, “Now, in certain diseases, our ability to treat has improved, and there are some people who are not dying because of treatment.”
The prevalence of smoking in the United States has decreased dramatically in the last six months. In 1965, 42% of Americans smoked cigarettes, but in 2019 it was down to 14%. Cigarette smoking is a known cause of lung, bladder, and pancreatic cancers.
Another major reason for the drop in cancer mortality has been the HPV vaccine which has led to a 65% drop in cervical cancers in Women in their 20s between 2012 and 2019.
Dr. William Dahut is the American Cancer Society’s chief scientific officer. He said, “There are other cancers that are HPV-related – whether that’s head and neck cancers or anal cancers – so there’s optimism this will have importance beyond this.”
For the last three decades, there has also been a decrease in mortality from leukemia, melanoma, and kidney cancer.
The cancers that now have the highest survival rates are thyroid (98%), prostate (97%), and melanoma (94%). The deadliest form of cancer is pancreatic cancer, which has a 12% survival rate.
Cervical cancer rates dropped 65% from 2012 to 2019 among women in their early 20s after a generation of young women were vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV, for the first time. #vaccines save lives. https://t.co/VHJ8fJUnAK
— Amy Holden Jones (@aholdenj) January 12, 2023
