Leading cancer experts recently took time to analyze and review the latest cancer mortality progress report concerning the overall progress that the U.S. has made in the fight against cancer.
Otis Brawley, American Cancer Society chief medical officer, and Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society, agree that there has been significant progress in the fight against cancer, but there are still challenges coming in the future.
The goal of the review is to determine which approaches are working and which are not. This will help health experts to decide what the next action should be.
In 1990, the American Cancer Society board of directors made a goal to reduce U.S. cancer mortality rates by 50 percent by 2015. Today, the experts are evaluating the progress that has been made in achieving this reduction.
From 1990 to 2015, cancer death rates reduced by 26 percent. This is just halfway to the 50 percent goal originally outlined in 1990, but medical experts say that it is still good news because progress is being made.
When analyzing the numbers, the experts learned that there has been a 32 percent decline in cancer mortality among men and 22 percent among women. Breast cancer mortality has fallen by 39 percent, colorectal cancer in men by 47 percent, colorectal cancer in women by 44 percent, prostate cancer by 53 percent, and lung cancer in men by 45 percent.
Further details are available in the American Cancer Society Journal.
