Cancer Rates Going Down in the United States

Source: "Diagnoses Of Cancer Decline in The U.S." by Rob Stein, The Washington Post, November 26, 2008.

The WP article, based on an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, indicates that the incidence of some forms of cancer is decreasing, attributing the decrease to the fewer people smoking. It mentions that the incidence of some other forms of cancer is increasing, perhaps due to increases in exposure to environmental carcinogens. However, some of the decrease in incidence is attributed to reduced use of diagnostic proceedures.

The mortality rates from cancers are decreasing faster than the incidence. The article does not explain the trend, but perhaps it is related to improvements in early case finding and treatment.

The article takes many more words to explain these simple observations.