The AP (1/12, Stobbe) reports the US “reported another record one-year decline in the…cancer death rate, a drop they attribute to success against lung cancer.” The US cancer death rate has been decreasing since 1991, and “from 2017 to 2018, it fell 2.4%, according to an American Cancer Society report, topping the record 2.2% drop reported the year before.” The report was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The Hill (1/12, Sullivan) reports Rebecca Siegel, the report’s lead author, said, “We anticipate that disruptions in access to cancer care in 2020 will lead to downstream increases in advanced stage diagnoses that may impede progress in reducing cancer mortality rates in the years to come.” From 1991 to 2018, “there has been a total decrease in the cancer death rate of 31 percent,” and “an estimated 3.2 million cancer deaths have been averted from 1991 through 2018 due to reductions in smoking, earlier detection, and improvements in treatment,” according to the report.