Cancer death rates continue to fall in U.S.: report

Medical workers carry a patient into a hospital in New York, the United States, Dec. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

The report shows that from 2015 to 2019, overall cancer death rates decreased by 2.1 percent per year in men and women combined.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Overall cancer death rates continued to decline in the United States from 2015 to 2019, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer published on Thursday.

From 2014 to 2018, overall cancer incidence, or new cases of cancer, remained stable for men and children in the country, but increased for women and adolescents and young adults, according to the report.

The report shows that from 2015 to 2019, overall cancer death rates decreased by 2.1 percent per year in men and women combined.

The declines in death rates were steepest in lung cancer and melanoma by 4 percent to 5 percent per year among both men and women, according to the report.

Death rates increased for cancers of the pancreas, brain, and bones and joints among men, and for cancers of the pancreas and uterus among women, the report shows.

Researchers noted that racial and ethnic disparities exist for many individual cancer sites.