Invasive Cancer Incidence and Survival

Two out of 3 people diagnosed with cancer survive five years or more. Approximately 1.5 million new cases of cancer were reported in the United States in 2011 according to national cancer registry data. About 2 of 3 people diagnosed with cancer survived ≥5 years after diagnosis.

Prostate, female breast, lung and bronchus, and colon and rectum cancers accounted for half of all cancers diagnosed in 2011. Disparities in cancer incidence still persist, with incidence rates higher among men (508) than women (410), and ranging by state from 374 in New Mexico per 100,000 persons to 509 in the District of Columbia per 100,000 persons.

These data are based on United States Cancer Statistics, the official annual federal government cancer incidence and mortality statistics for the U.S. population and for individual states, available at www.cdc.gov/uscs.

Cancer Deaths Declining from 4 Types of Cancer

The CDC's Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, covering the period 1975–2010, showed death rates for lung cancer, which accounts for more than one in four cancer deaths, dropping at a faster pace than in previous years. The recent larger drop in lung cancer deaths is likely the result of decreased cigarette smoking prevalence over many years.

The lung cancer death rate decline, as well as declines in colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer death rates, has also helped drive decreases in death rates for all cancers types combined, a trend that began about 20 years ago. The decreased death rates for these four cancers accounted for more than two-thirds of the overall reduction in cancer death rates in the period 2001–2010.

However, the report showed that death rates increased for some cancers, including cancers of the liver and pancreas for both sexes, cancers of the uterus in women, and, in men only, melanoma of the skin and cancers of the soft tissue in this 10-year period.

During the period of 2001–2010, overall cancer incidence rates decreased by 0.6 percent per year among men, were stable among women, and increased by 0.8 percent per year among children (ages 0 through 14 years), continuing trends from recent reports.

The special feature of this year's report highlights the prevalence of other disease conditions, (diabetes, chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, and 13 others) in cancer patients over 65 years of age, and how they affect survival.

As in previous years, this year's study was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.