Cancer Statistics for 2014: Death Rates Plummet

It looks as if we're winning the battle against cancer among some populations. The annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society has shown that there have been steady declines in cancer death rates for the past two years.

Each year, the American Cancer Society estimates the numbers of new cancer cases and deaths expected in the United States. It also compiles the most recent data on cancer incidence, mortality and survival based on incidence data from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics. This year's report, though, reveals that cancer death rates are declining.

In fact, the declines in cancer death rates for the past two years add up to a 20 percent drop in the overall risk of dying from cancer over that time period. Progress has been most rapid for middle-aged black men; their death rates have declined by more than 50 percent. Yet while these findings are optimistic, cancer still remains a huge health issue.

The new report estimates there will be 1,665,540 new cancer cases and 585,720 cancer deaths in the United States in 2014. Among men, prostate, lung and colon cancer will account for about half of all newly diagnosed cancers. Among women, breast, lung and colon cancer will be the most common to be diagnosed. Breast cancer alone is expected to account for 29 percent of all new cancers among women.

The new report also reveals that the magnitude of the decline in cancer death rates from 1991 to 2010 varies substantially by age, race and sex, ranging from no decline among white women aged 80 years and older to a 55 percent decline among black men aged 40 years to 49 years. Despite this, though, it does show that some populations are receiving more and better care.

"The progress we are seeing is good, even remarkable, but we can and must do even better," said John R. Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, in a news release. "The halving of the risk of cancer death among middle aged black men in just two decades is extraordinary, but it is immediately tempered by the knowledge that death rates are still higher among black men than white men for nearly every major cancer and for all cancers combined."

The findings are published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.