Mortality rates for all forms of cancer have fallen by 1.5 percent per year from 2001 through 2010, according to a federal government report released this week. That represents a cumulative decline of nearly 13 percent over that decade.
“Death rates continued to decline for all cancers combined for men and women of all major racial and ethnic groups,” stated the report from the National Cancer Institute, issued annually since 1998.
Lung cancer mortality rates decreased by 2 percent annually during the period studied. This form of cancer is among the most deadly, causing one in four cancer deaths.
San Diego County cancer mortality rates dropped by 1.3 percent annually, and by 2 percent annually for lung cancer.
While the local rate of decline was slightly slower than the national rate, the actual death rates in San Diego County and California are lower than the national average, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The per-100,000 death rates in 2009 were 159.4 for San Diego County; 159.0 for California and 173.09 for the entire nation, according to the CDC.
Dr Lyudmila A. Bazhenova, the disease team leader for lung cancer at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. — UCSD Moores Cancer Center
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Dr Lyudmila A. Bazhenova, the disease team leader for lung cancer at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. / UCSD Moores Cancer Center
Californians have benefited from the state’s strong actions against smoking, said Dr. Lyudmila A. Bazhenova, the disease team leader for lung cancer at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Smoking is recognized as the biggest cause of lung cancer, and a contributor to other kinds of cancer.
“Unfortunately, lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in incidence, and it has a pretty high mortality rate,” Bazhenova said. “Overall, 85 percent of patients with lung cancer will die from the disease. So even a small percentage difference turns into a lot of lives saved, or longer survival times for patients with Stage 4 (advanced) disease.”
Lung cancers are divided into two types. Non-small cell lung cancer, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of cases, is largely brought on by smoking. Small-cell lung cancer is not associated with smoking.
But while lung cancer remains difficult to treat and common, the incidence rate is dropping, Bazhenova said.
The four most common cancers — of the lung, female breast, prostate and colorectal area — make up about half of newly diagnosed cases in the U.S., the report stated. Death rates declined for all of these except for female breast cancer, which remained stable.
Death rates declined in a number of other cancers, including leukemia, ovarian and stomach cancer. But death rates increased for cancers of the liver and pancreas; the skin cancer melanoma; and soft tissue cancers, including cancer of the heart.
While overall cancer death rates continued to fall across racial and ethnic groups, major disparities remain, the report stated. Black men had the highest cancer death rate, 276.6 per 100,000 men, of any group measured for the period from 2006 through 2010. Rates were also higher among men, 215.3 deaths per 100,000 men, than women, 149.7 deaths per 100,000 women.
The report also emphasized the effect of “comorbidities,” or other chronic diseases, on cancer patients. These diseases complicate care of cancer patients and reduce their odds of survival. The highest percentage of comorbidities, 52.9 percent, occurred in lung cancer patients. Diabetes, COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and congestive heart failure were the three most common morbidities.