by ecancer reporter Janet Fricker

Although death rates have decreased for many cancers, those associated with excess weight and lack of exercise are showing an increase, reports the US “Annual report to the Nation” in the journal Cancer.

The “Annual Report to the Nation”, representing a collaborative effort between the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), provides an update of new cancer cases, death rates and trends in the US.

The information is collected from central cancer registries in the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and/or the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.

Results show that mortality rates decreased, on average, 1.6 % per year from 2004 through 2008. During that same period, cancer incidence rates among men decreased by an average of 0.6 % per year, while incidence rates among women declined 0.5 % per year from 1998 through 2006, and levelled off from 2006 through 2008.

 Among children aged 19 years or younger, cancer incidence rates increased 0.6 %  per year from 2004 through 2008, continuing trends from 1992, while death rates decreased 1.3 % per year during the same period.

In a special section of the report highlighting cancers associated with excess weight and lack of sufficient physical activity, including pancreas, kidney, and adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus, the data showed:

• Kidney cancer incidence increased from 1999 to 2008 approximately 2.9% per year among men and 3.3% among women.

• Pancreas cancer increased approximately1.2% per year from 1999 to 2008 among both men and women 

• Adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus increased 2.6%per year from 1992 to 2008 among men and 3.3% per year among women

“It is encouraging to note that many of these risk factors are modifiable. Reductions in these risk factors over time should be reflected in reductions in cancer incidence,” write the authors. 

“Achieving and sustaining healthy lifestyle behaviors are essential to reducing the burden of cancer.”

Reference

Eheman C, Henley SJ, Ballard-Barbash R, et al. Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2008, Featuring Cancers Associated with Excess Weight and Lack of Sufficient Physical Activity. CANCER; Published Early Online: March 28, 2012. DOI: 10.1002/cncr.27514,