New research shows that cancer deaths have declined in the last decade.
Cancer killed an estimated 602,350 people in 2020, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S.’s cancer death rate has declined by 32% between 1991 and 2019. According to the American Association for Cancer Research annual report.
According to research, this has saved 3.5 Million lives.
“The U.S. cancer death rate is steadily declining, and more people than ever before are living longer and fuller lives after a cancer diagnosis,”According to the report.
Researchers also observed that the number cancer survivors has increased by over a million in just the past year. Additionally, between 2016 and 2019, the rate at which cancer survivors survive has only accelerated.
“In fact, the number of children and adults living with a history of cancer exceeded a record 18 million in January 2022,”According to the report.
This is due to “remarkable advances”The researchers are involved in medical research, cancer prevention, detection diagnosis and treatment.
For example, between August 1, 2021 and July 31, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration approved eight new anticancer therapeutics, 10 therapeutics for use for new cancer types and two new diagnostic imaging agents.
“We have now a revolution in immune therapies. And when you put that together with the combination of targeted therapies, chemo and radiation therapy, we now have patients that would have died within two years of a diagnosis living 15, 20, 25, 30 years, essentially cured of their malignancies,” AACR President Lisa Coussens said.
However, there are many people who do not understand this concept. “continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of cancer,”According to the report.
According to the report, historically, Black people have been most affected by cancer and other health inequalities. In fact, in the 1990s, death rates from cancer were 33% higher among Black community members than those of their white counterparts. The disparity in 2019 has been lessening, but Blacks continue to experience high death rates.
According to the report, there are also economic-based and racial disparities:
- Gastric cancer is almost twice as likely in American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian Black or Hispanic communities
- Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders are 38% more likely to have advanced head and neck cancer
- Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are 18% likely to die of these cancers.
- Gay men are 4 times more likely to have a life-threatening cancer diagnosis than their straight counterparts
- Lung cancer is 34% more common in rural residents
- Advanced lung cancer is more common in those with lower education levels and incomes.
These disparities can be explained by a number of factors, such as access to insurance, location and structural inequities.
To prevent a drop in these upwards trending trends, the CDC needs bipartisan support for prioritizing medical research.
This includes increasing the budgets of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health by $4.1 billion each and $853 million respectively.
“Ensuring that medical research remains a high priority for our nation’s policy makers is vital if we are to maintain the momentum in advances against cancer,”Margaret Foti, chief executive of AACR, stated, “especially as we recover from the devastating impact of COVID-19 on cancer research and patient care.”
