18 Dec Two out of Three Cancer Patients Live Five or More Years After Diagnosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
S. Jane Henley, MSPH
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
CDC
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Many factors contribute to changes in cancer incidence, including changes in risk exposures or changes in the use of cancer screening tests. To monitor changes in cancer incidence and assess progress toward achieving Healthy People 2020 objectives, we analyzed data from U.S. Cancer Statistics (USCS) which includes high quality incidence data from CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program and survival data from NPCR. This study updates a previous study, using the latest available data on population-based cancer incidence and survival.
We found that about 1.5 million new cancer cases were reported in the US in 2012, and rates of prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer were lower than in 2011. The rates of getting cancer were higher among men than women, highest among black people, and varied by state from 371 to 515 per 100,000 people. The most common kinds of cancer were prostate, female breast, lung, and colorectal. About two of every three people who were diagnosed with cancer lived five years or more after diagnosis.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: The burden of cancer can be reduced by maximizing efforts to improve adherence to cancer screening recommendations and to promote healthy choices, such as avoiding tobacco, getting enough physical activity, keeping a healthy weight, and limiting alcohol use. Health care providers play an important role in ensuring that everyone has access to timely and appropriate preventive care services, such as getting the right screening tests at the right time.
Everyone should understand that getting preventive care may prevent cancer or find it early, when treatment is likely to work best. CDC recommends getting these preventive services—
- Getting help to quit smoking or other tobacco use.
- Talking to your doctor about alcohol use.
- Getting a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) and Hepatitis B virus as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
- Getting screened for breast, cervical, colorectal (colon), and lung cancers as recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
- Creating a personalized survivorship care plan.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Ongoing population-based surveillance are needed to monitor cancer incidence, survival, and mortality. It will be interesting to monitor patterns of prostate cancer to assess the impact of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation against using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer screening. Another interesting question is how cancer control efforts to promote human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination will affect patterns of cervical cancer. And, of course, it will be important to track the encouraging reductions in colorectal and lung cancers.
Citation:
Invasive Cancer Incidence and Survival — United States, 2012
S. Jane Henley, MSPH (2015). Two out of Three Cancer Patients Live Five or More Years After Diagnosis
Last Updated on December 18, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD