Search Here

A new federal report found that the rates of advanced, invasive cancers have fallen from 2009 to 2010 within the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes that the slight drop in numbers could be due to better screening methods. The agency stated that improving these methods even more could get the rates to drop faster.

"The good news is that we are seeing slightly lower cancer rates in 2010 than in 2009," Dr. David Espey, acting director of the CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, said reported by HuffPost. "However, far too many people are disabled and die from preventable cancers. It's important to continue to offer the cancer preventive services that we know works to reduce cancer rates and save lives."

The latest report found that the rates of advanced cancer cases have fallen from 459 per 100,000 people in 2009 to 446 per 100,000 people in 2010. In 2010, the researchers counted over 745,300 invasive cancer cases in men and over 711,000 cases in women. The incidence rates were 503 per 100,000 men and 405 per 100,000 women. The most common types of advanced cancer for men were prostate, lung and colorectal cancers. For women, the most common types were breast, lung, colorectal and uterine cancers.

Black people had the highest rates at 455 cases per 100,000 people. For Hispanic men, the most common type of cancer was lung cancer and for Hispanic women, the most common type was colorectal cancer. When the researchers examined incidence rates geographically, they found that in Kentucky, 511 out of 100,000 residents had advanced cancer. In Arizona, that rate fell to 380 out of 100,000. Advanced, invasive cancers are harder to treat because by this stage, the cancer has spread from its original site and into other locations.

The researchers concluded that even though the rates of advanced cancers fell by just a little, if more measures are taken in order to catch cancers at earlier stages, these rates could fall significantly over the next few years. The study was published in the CDC's journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.