Jump to full article: AP, 2009-05-27
Author: MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer
Intro: The U.S. cancer death rate fell again in 2006, a new analysis shows, continuing a slow downward trend that experts attribute to declines in smoking, earlier detection and better treatment.
About 560,000 people died of cancer that year, according to an American Cancer Society report released Wednesday. The new numbers show the death rate fell by less than 2 percent, but since that decline was better than the previous year, the cancer society applauded the progress.
Others said the change was not a big deal.
"The improvement was modest," said Dr. Michael Goodman, an Emory University researcher who specializes in cancer statistics. . . .
The explanation for why the death rate has fallen depends on the type of cancer. For example, better screening has improved deaths from colon cancer. Treatment advances are more of a factor in leukemia death rates. And smoking cessation is the main reason behind improvements in male lung cancer deaths.
"What we call 'cancer' is really a great variety of different conditions," Goodman said.
Lung cancer accounted for nearly 30 percent of cancer deaths in 2006.
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