Cancer mortality continuing to decline, says report

Overall cancer mortality rates declined from 2001 through 2022, while cancer incidence rates decreased from 2001 through 2013 and stabilized through 2021, according to the 2024 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer published online April 21 in Cancer.

Recinda L. Sherman M.P.H., Ph.D., from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries in Springfield, Illinois, and colleagues obtained cancer incidence data and cancer death data to present definitive U.S. statistics for cancer incidence and mortality, examining the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The researchers found that the overall cancer incidence rates were 500 and 437 per 100,000 among males and females, respectively. Cancer incidence rates remained stable among males (2013 to 2021) and increased by 0.3% per year on average among females (2003 to 2021), excluding 2020.

Per 100,000, the overall cancer death rate was 173 and 126 among males and females, respectively. There was a 1.5% decline in cancer death rates per year from 2018 to 2022, slowing from a prior decline of 2.1%. In 2020, cancer incidence decreased from prepandemic levels for all demographic groups; there was no strong association observed for the magnitude of decline with the study’s proxies for health care capacity, health care access, or COVID-19 policies.

“Our analysis indicates that the decline in 2020 cancer diagnoses has not carried over into 2021 incidence rates,” the authors write. “However, additional data years are needed to correctly interpret this decline and assess whether cases went undiagnosed or underreported, because the rates in 2021 were not greater than expected.”

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