Cancer Incidence and Deaths Decline for First Time

A new report from the nation's cancer organizations has shown that for the first time since 1998 — the first year that such a report was issued — both cancer incidence and death rates from all cancers have decreased for men and women.

The report, titled the "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2005, Featuring Trends in Lung Cancer, Tobacco Use and Tobacco Control," appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI). Each year, the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries collaborate to produce a report to the nation on the current cancer burden in the United States.

Cancer death rates have been dropping since the first annual report, but this year's report also marked a simultaneous decline in cancer incidence. The combined declines resulted largely from the three most common cancers: lung, colorectal and prostate.

The report, which appears in the November 25 online version of the JNCI and the Dec. 2 print edition, provides detail on various cancers, states and geographic regions and behaviors such as tobacco use and smoking cessation in relation to cancer incidence and mortality. For more on the report, go to the NCI's Web site at http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/ReportNation2008Release.