ATLANTA (AP) – cases of United States cancer rates continue to decline, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The rate of new cases of cancer has been slowly falling at an annual rate close to 0.5% since 1999. In total cancer deaths have declined 1.5 per cent per year in adults and 1.7 per cent in children.
“This is good news,” said doctor Marcus Plescia, centres for the Control and prevention of diseases of United States ( CDC for its acronym in English), one of the four organizations which collaborated in the report “there has been a positive momentum for several years and that continues”.
figures are part of a submitted report year after year since 1998 by a group of government agencies and other organizations, including the CDC and the society against the cancer of United States. The new report includes virtually every case of cancer reported in the country until 2008.
health officials indicated that cancer rates have been declining due to better medical check-ups, advances in treatments and efforts to prevent some forms of cancer by reducing smoking and other unhealthy behaviors.
Benefit of the efforts against the habit of smoking: in 2008, for the second consecutive year, the rate of lung cancer deaths declined in women. The rate of deaths from lung cancer in men has been falling since the early 1990s.
The rate of deaths from prostate cancer continue to decline, as well as rates of deaths from colon cancer in patients of both sexes and the rate of new cases for these types of cancer.
Breast cancer death rate continues to decline, but the rate of new cases of this type of cancer – which recorded a downward trend annually from 1999 to 2004 – has stabilized since then. Health officials believe that is partially related to a plateau on the rates of breast cancer reviews.
Although the report includes many good news, the authors found some disturbing threats. One is the increase in cases of cancer of the skin and deaths for them, something that according to some experts could be results of the use of beds for tanning.
The authors also indicated a problem with overweight and obesity in the country. Two of every three American adults is overweight or obese, something that seems to contribute to the increase in the rates of cancer of esophagus, uterus, pancreas and kidney.
