Title: Cancer Death Rate in U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop - The New York Times
Headings: Cancer Death Rate in U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop
Cancer Death Rate in U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop
Content: And what made it so dramatic is that for people 65 and older, melanoma mortality rates were actually increasing in the 2000s.” [Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.] But as more Americans put on excess pounds, the rate of obesity-related cancers is increasing. These include malignancies of the liver, kidneys, pancreas and uterus, cancers of the breast in postmenopausal women, and colon and rectal cancers in adults younger than 55. “What we’re seeing with obesity is really sort of parallel to what we saw with cigarette smoking,” said Timothy Rebbeck, an epidemiologist at Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Studies have found that obesity, unhealthy diets and a lack of physical activity are associated with metabolic and hormone abnormalities and with chronic inflammation, which may help explain the link to cancer. Controlling these factors could help jump-start declines in cancer incidence and mortality rates once again, Dr. Rebbeck said. But not all populations benefit from prevention and advances in cancer treatment. Although racial disparities in cancer care are narrowing, the American Cancer Society report found that black men were still twice as likely to die of cancer as Asian/Pacific Islander men and 20 percent more likely to die than white men.