Cancer mortality rates fall to an all-time low

But not for all cancers, and trend lines for some health-related behaviors are heading in the wrong direction.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Jan. 23, 2006.

The cancer death rate has struck a new low, continuing the trend it began in 1992. Additionally, patterns for some lifestyle choices that contribute to the development of the disease have maintained a downward spiral, while screening for certain cancers has increased, according to the "Cancer Trends Progress Report -- 2005 Update," issued by the National Cancer Institute last month.

"The mortality rate is declining, and that is the most important and simple measure of the progress against cancer," said Robert Croyle, PhD, a member of the report's external advisory group and director of the NCI's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. "The most important factor is the decline in tobacco use."

Encouraging signs in this regard continue. The percentage of high-school students who identified themselves as regular smokers plummeted from a high of just over 37% in 1999 to just shy of 22% in 2003. Meanwhile, in regard to other prevention efforts, slightly more than 60% of people took steps to protect their skin from cancer in 2002 compared with 53% in 1992. On the screening front, nearly 70% of women older than 40 in 2003 had received a mammogram in the past two years. In 1987, that figure was only 27%.

"We are making remarkable progress," said Tim Byers, MD, MPH, deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Denver. "And I'm very optimistic about the future as well."

In part, the positive changes in cancer mortality rates can be attributed to improvements in treatment. Examples of recent progress, for instance, are chronicled in "Clinical Cancer Advances 2005," a report issued by the American Society of Clinical Oncology last month. But despite this kind of good news, the NCI report includes other findings -- especially regarding the utilization of cancer prevention strategies and screening -- that still cause concern.