US Cancer Death Reverse Course, Rise in 2005

[Guest guest]

[As funding for cancer research declines, what would you expect?

Another troubling trend is the disappearing drugs in pharmaceutical

pipelines.

Not good news.

Instead of spending millions on such projects as the " Franco-American

Heritage Center " , why not spend it on saving lives???]

US Cancer Deaths Rose by 5,400 in 2005

February 20, 2008

ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. cancer deaths rose by more than 5,000 in 2005, a

somewhat disappointing reversal of a two-year downward trend, the

American Cancer Society said in a report issued Wednesday.

The group counted 559,312 people who died from cancer.

The cancer death rate among the overall population continued to fall,

but only slightly, after a couple of years of more dramatic decline.

In 2005, there were just under 184 cancer deaths per 100,000 people,

down from nearly 186 the previous year. Experts said it wasn't

surprising that the rate would stabilize.

The cancer death rate has been dropping since the early 1990s, and

early in this decade was declining by about 1 percent a year. The

actual number of cancer deaths kept rising, however, because of the

growing population.

So it was big news when the rate dropped by 2 percent in both 2003 and

2004, enough to cause the total number of cancer deaths to fall for

the first time since 1930.

President Bush and others hailed that as a sign that federally funded

research was making strides against the disease.

But now the death rate decline is back to 1 percent. And the 2005

numbers show annual cancer deaths are no longer falling, but are up

more than 5,400 since 2004.

" The declining rate was no longer great enough to overcome the

increase in population, " said Ward, a co-author of the

cancer society report

Officials with the organization say they don't know why the decline in

the death rate eased.

It may be that cancer screenings are not having as big an effect as

they were a few years ago, said Dr. Ravdin, a research professor

in biostatistics at the University of Texas M.D. Cancer

Center in Houston.

One possible example: In 2004, the largest drop in deaths among the

major cancers was in colorectal cancer. Experts gave much of the

credit to colonoscopy screenings that detect polyps and allow doctors

to remove them before they turn cancerous. They also mentioned " the

Couric effect " -- a jump in colonoscopy rates after the " Today "

show host had the exam on national television in 2000.

In the new report, the colorectal cancer death rate decreased by about

3 percent from 2004 to 2005, after plunging 6 percent from 2003 to 2004.

Colorectal cancer screening rates through 2003 did not show a decline.

But it's possible they have fallen since then, Ravdin said.

Cancer society officials have also voiced concern that cancer deaths

may increase as Americans lose health insurance coverage and get fewer

screenings.

The good news is the cancer death rate is still declining, and that

since the early 1990s is down more than 18 percent for men and more

than 10 percent for women. Those reductions translate to more than

half a million cancer deaths avoided, according to the cancer society.

Experts attribute the success to declines in smoking and to earlier

detection and more effective treatment of tumors.

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