Here’s some good news about cancer: Overall cancer death rates declined among men, women, children, teens and young adults in every major racial and ethnic group in the United States from 2015 to 2019.
The not-so-good news: New cancer cases remained stable for men and children, but increased for women, teens and young adults.
The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer tracked cancer incidents and death rates from 2014 through 2019. It also includes long-term trends.
One caveat: The report’s findings are based on data gathered before COVID-19. The pandemic halted annual screenings so much that it’s expected cancer diagnoses will rise as a result.
The federal government’s “Cancer Moonshot Initiative” aims to reduce the national cancer death rate by at least half over the next 25 years.
The report shows that from 2015 to 2019, overall cancer death rates went down 2.3% per year for men and 1.9% for women.
Death rates declined most in lung cancer and melanoma — 4 to 5% per year — among adults. Death rates increased for cancers of the pancreas, brain, and bones and joints among men, and for the pancreas and uterus among women.
Cancer incidence rates remained stable for men from 2014 to 2018 and rose by two-tenths of 1% for women each year during that span.
The most disappointing news in the report noted that the three most common types of cancer in children (leukemia, brain and nervous system, and lymphoma) rose from 2001 to 2018.
But, ending on a happier note: For men, the steepest decrease was in the incidence of lung cancer, which fell by 2.6% a year from 2014 to 2018. In women, thyroid cancer saw the sharpest decline, falling nearly 3% a year.