Cancer Rates Decline Across U.S.—But Some Surprising Diagnoses Are On The Rise

America’s latest cancer report card is in, and for once, it’s not all doom and gloom. The National Cancer Institute just dropped its annual stats, revealing that both new cancer diagnoses and deaths are continuing to decline nationwide. Between 2018 and 2022, cancer death rates fell 1.7% each year for men and 1.3% for women. That’s not just a decimal—those points add up to thousands of lives.

According to Dr. Marc Siegel, the improving numbers are the result of a multi-pronged offensive: better screening, early intervention, fancier surgery, and therapies that are way more targeted than ever. If only all of life’s problems could be tackled with such teamwork.

Smoking-related cancers—think lung, bladder, and larynx—saw some of the sharpest declines, both in new cases and deaths. The researchers credit this to fewer people lighting up and evolving screening guidelines. Chalk one up for all those anti-smoking ads from the ‘90s.

Among men, mortality rates dropped for 12 common cancer types, including prostate, liver, skin (melanoma), kidney, colon, and more. Lung and bronchus cancer deaths dropped the most, plummeting 4.5% each year. That’s a freefall you actually want to see.

Dr. Siegel highlighted that early detection, robotic lung surgery, and precision therapies are behind these wins. Still, not all the news is rosy: men saw increased death rates for pancreatic, bone and joint, oral cavity, and some skin cancers.

For women, 14 major cancer types saw reduced death rates—brain, cervix, heart tissue, urinary bladder, kidney, breast, stomach, blood cancers, colon, and more. Lung and bronchus cancer again took the prize for biggest improvement, with deaths down 3.4% per year. Notably, breast cancer mortality has fallen a staggering 42% since its peak in 1989, thanks to smarter treatments and diligent screening.

Yet, women experienced rising deaths from cancers of the mouth, uterus, and liver during the same period. It’s a mixed bag, but the trend lines are mostly heading in the right direction.

The kids aren’t left out of the progress: cancer death rates among children dropped by 1.5% per year between 2001 and 2022. Teens and young adults also saw improvements, though the pace slowed after 2005 and plateaued between 2020 and 2022.

On the diagnosis front, men saw new cancer cases drop 1.6% to 2.2% annually from 2001 to 2013, then level off through 2021. The biggest drop? Once again, lung and bronchus cancer, down 3.4% each year. However, six cancers—including prostate and pancreas—are bucking the trend with increasing diagnoses. Prostate cancer, in particular, rose 2.9% annually. Men just can’t catch a break sometimes.

For women, new cancer cases have been creeping up by 0.3% each year since 2003. Eight types are on the rise—including stomach, skin, breast, and pancreatic cancers. Stomach cancer rates, for example, are growing the fastest at 3.2% per year. Researchers point to lifestyle changes—lower fertility rates, older age at first birth, more obesity and alcohol—as reasons for some of these increases. And here’s a kicker: they say 16% of all breast cancer cases can be traced to alcohol habits. Suddenly that glass of chardonnay looks a bit more suspicious.

The report also links the rise in uterine cancer to excess body weight, inactivity, diabetes, and early menstruation. For women, the fastest fall in cases was for lung and bronchus cancer, down 2.1% per year. Meanwhile, brain, cervix, colon, bladder, ovarian, and thyroid cancers are all on the decline.

In children, new cancer cases dropped 0.8% annually from 2017 to 2021, with brain tumor rates seeing the biggest dip. But leukemia and lymphoma ticked up slightly in the same period. Among teens and young adults, the most common cancers are breast (for females), thyroid, and testicular cancer, but overall diagnosis rates held steady.

Dr. Siegel also credited the "team approach" in cancer care—with surgeons, oncologists, radiation therapists, and nurses joining forces—for driving down mortality. It’s medicine’s version of the Avengers, really.

The report noted a strange dip in new cancer cases at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but numbers bounced back to normal levels in 2021. As a result, 2020’s data was left out of longer-term trend analysis. Even pandemics can’t keep these statisticians from crunching their numbers.