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Cancer deaths are down, but cancer in women and young people is up, yearly study finds

Fewer dying of cancer, but rates rise for some
Fewer Americans are dying from cancer, but rates rising in women and young people 01:56

The American Cancer Society's latest cancer report shows both positive and concerning trends: overall cancer deaths are down but the number of women and young adults with cancer is up. 

The annual report, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, found the cancer mortality rate declined 34% from 1991 to 2022 in the United States. 

While overall cancer deaths are in decline, thanks to factors like earlier detection and better treatments, that's not true for all cancers. Death rates are increasing for certain types, including oral, pancreatic, uterine and liver cancers, the report found. 

Racial inequalities in cancer deaths also persist, the report highlighted.

Rates in Native American people are double or triple the rates of White people for kidney, liver, stomach and cervical cancers. Black people are twice as likely to die of prostate, stomach and uterine cancers compared with White people and 50% more likely to die from preventable cervical cancer.

Shifts in cancer for women and young adults

The report also found that more women and young adults are having cancer, a shift. Cancer cases in women aged 50 to 64 have surpassed those in men, for example. And cancer rates in women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts, which is up from 51% in 2002.

"One thing we found out really striking in this report is for an increase in the number of women being diagnosed with cancer, particularly in the 50 to 64 age, compared to men," Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society told CBS News. "Seeing this trend over time is certainly concerning and something we need to take a look at."

The report did not determine why we're seeing these increases, but obesity rates as well as genetic and environmental factors may be at play, Dahut said. 

On "CBS Mornings" Friday, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, pointed to a few other factors for higher rates of cancer in women.

For lung cancer, Gounder explained women were slower to quit smoking than men.

"Men took up smoking earlier, but over time, men started to quit smoking earlier than women. So some of this is a result of women are still smoking at higher rates, driving the lung cancer rates," she said. 

There are also issues with increased HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, despite a vaccine that came out decades ago. 

"There was a lag in people starting to get vaccinated at the same time that cervical cancer screening guidelines got more complicated, so women were sort of confused about their screening, maybe less consistent. So we see, unfortunately, an increase in HPV-related cancers," Gounder said. 

Lung cancer and pancreatic cancer insights 

Lung cancer is still the number one cause of cancer death, according to the report — but many people don't get screened for it. 

"A government task force recommends annual low dose CT scan for people 50 to 80 who smoked at least the equivalent of a pack a day for 20 years and either currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years, but less than 20% of those eligible are actually screened," CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook said on "CBS Evening News" Thursday

In addition, a study found less than half of primary care providers were aware of the recommendation. 

"This is a perfect example of how important it is for patients to educate and empower themselves so they can bring up these kinds of questions with their care provider," LaPook said. 

But it's not just smoking that can lead to lung cancer.

"One of the most striking things in this report was the rates of lung cancer among women who do not smoke," Gounder said, saying other risk factors for the disease are now being paid more attention to, including air pollutionradon in the home and perhaps some hormonal factors. 

"We know, for example, pregnancy is a period of immunosuppression, whether that's from the hormones or from other things that are happening during pregnancy. So how all of these things interact to increase risk in women is really something that needs to be researched a lot better," she said.

And despite pancreatic cancer being the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., the report found progress on this front is lagging. In a press briefing Tuesday, Dahut said that detecting pancreatic cancers at a treatable stage is difficult, and called for more screening and treatment options. 

"This is something that really and rightly so has gotten the attention of really the scientific community with a focus, hopefully on really detecting pancreatic cancer earlier on, because it is a very difficult cancer to treat once it's regionally metastatic (when it has spread to nearby organs or lymph node)," he said.

Steps for better cancer prevention

LaPook said there are a few steps you can take to lower your risk of cancer. And at the top of the list is quitting smoking. 

"The number one modifiable risk factor is smoking, which accounts for about 30% of all cancer deaths," he said. 

Cervical cancer is also preventable with the HPV vaccine, though less than 40% of eligible children got it in 2022, LaPook said. 

And a good place to start is knowing the details of your family history, he said. 

"If your mom had quote-unquote stomach cancer, was it really from the stomach? Or could it have been colon or even ovarian, which would totally change the approach to screening. So try to get medical records whenever possible" he advised. 

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