From Primary Source – CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Covered in numerous news outlets. Review and comments by David M. Waterhouse, MD, MPH, Co-Director, Department of Research, OHC
January 16, 2018
David M. Waterhouse, MD, MPH
Co-Director of Research at OHC
According to the Washington Post in “To Your Health,” a report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) indicates the US’ “overall cancer death rate declined 1.7 percent in 2015.” The data indicate that “overall, the cancer death rate has dropped from 215.1 per 100,000 population in 1991 to 158.6 per 100,000 in 2015.”
“This is what we live for,” said David M. Waterhouse, MD, MPH, Co-Director of Research at OHC. “This is why we get up and come to work everyday. It’s exciting to see efforts such as education, prevention, clinical trials and treatments are working”
On its website, NBC News reports, “More than 2.3 million people have not died of cancer since 1991 who otherwise would have if cancer rates had remained unchanged… said” the ACS.
TIME reports, “One of the biggest forces behind the decline is a reduction in smoking, thanks to public health campaigns warning of its dangers, and tobacco taxes that discourage people from picking up the habit.” Although lung cancer, for instance, “remains a leading cause of cancer death, death rates have dropped by 45% among men from 1990 to 2015 and by 19% among women from 2002 to 2015.”
“These findings are promising but we still have a long way to go,” cautions Dr. Waterhouse. “As long as there is one person with cancer, we will continue our relentless search for new treatments until cancer has been eradicated.”
HealthDay reports, “During the past 10 years, cancer death rates in men” declined by approximately “2 percent per year, but they remained steady in women.” Additionally, the investigators “found a persistent gap between cancer death rates between whites and blacks.” The data indicated “in 2015, the cancer death rate was 14 percent higher in black people than in white people.” The findings were published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
