Cancer cases, deaths drop in both men and women

Cases of cancer, as well as cancer deaths, fell for the first time among men and women in the United States, according to an annual report on 30 years of cancer trends. It was the first documented drop in both men and women, researchers said.

Cancer incidence rates fell 0.8 percent per year from 1999 through 2005 . Cancer death rates, meanwhile, dropped 1.8 percent per year from 2002 through 2005, the report said.

It was produced by the American Cancer Society, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries said.

Most of the decline came in the most common cancers: lung, colorectal, and prostate cancer in men and breast and colorectal cancer in women. Together these cancers account for about half of all cancer cases and deaths.

"Declines in cancer death rates indicate real progress in cancer control, reflecting a combination of primary prevention, early detection, and treatment," the report's authors write in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Trends in the incidence of cancer are more difficult to interpret because varying risk factors as well as screening and diagnostic practices are also involved, the report said.

There were differences in the rate of cancer cases among racial and ethnic groups, the report noted. Black men had the highest rate of cancer incidence among men from 2001 through 2005 and white women had the highest rate among women during that period. Prostate cancer cases stayed the same for white, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic men but fell in black men. Lung cancer rates rose in white women but were stable among other women.

Dr. Edward J. Benz Jr., president of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, called the decline in cases and deaths encouraging, but not enough.

"Unacceptable disparities persist according to race, socioeconomic status, and geographic location, and ... little progress is apparent for some forms of cancer," he said in an e-mail message. "The news is heartening but there is much work still to be done."

Further research is needed for cancers whose incidence has increased, the report said, including leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, myeloma, kidney, testicular, brain, and female thyroid cancers. The authors also pointed to the need to investigate such highly lethal cancers as pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths.

The report devoted special attention to lung cancer and smoking, which is blamed for about 30 percent of all cancer deaths. Lung cancer cases and deaths were much higher in the Midwest and South than in other parts of the country where higher tobacco taxes and more stringent anti-smoking measures are more prevalent.

"The regional differences within the United States show that states with effective tobacco control policies can lower the frequency and death rates from lung cancer," Dr. Bruce E. Johnson, director of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber said in an e-mailed message. "Tobacco control has saved lives, and it is time for a wider implementation of tobacco control policies in the U.S."