Good news at last ! The information comes straight from the American Cancer Society: in the United States, between 1991 and 2014, the cancer mortality fell 25%, a reduction of 2.1 million deaths in 25 years.
In detail, it is lung, prostate, breast and colorectal cancer that have declined the most. Thus, the number of deaths caused by lung cancer fell by 43% between 1990 and 2014 in men and by 17% in women from 2002 to 2014. As regards breast cancer, mortality also plunged: – 38% among women between 1989 and 2014. An even more spectacular drop for the Prostate cancer in men, which decreased by 51% between 1993 and 2014. Last called on the podium, colorectal cancer, with – 51% between 1976 and 2014 in both sexes.
“Racial disparities” are narrowing
In the United States, cancer nevertheless remains the second cause of death behind cardiovascular disease: the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2017, 1.68 million new cases will be diagnosed across the Atlantic.
In this encouraging report published in the specialized journal Journal for Clinicians, there are still a few black spots: thus, men are generally more affected by cancer than women (+ 20%) and male mortality linked to cancer is also higher (+ 40%). In contrast, “racial disparities” in cancer-related mortality continue to narrow: the increased risk of dying from the disease among black men compared to whites fell from 47% in 1990 to 21% in 2014.
How to explain this improvement? The American Cancer Society targets several factors: the health policy of outgoing President Barack Obama (the famous ObamaCare), first, then technological innovations: personalized medicine and immunotherapy, in particular.
To read :
Cancer: the excellent results of a clinical trial of immunotherapy
Alzheimer’s disease: the hope of immunotherapy against memory loss
