Cancer diagnoses rise; shift to younger demographic

Editor's Note: 

Although overall mortality from cancer continues to decline, diagnoses continue to increase and have shifted from older to middle-aged adults.

These are among the conclusions of the latest report from the American Cancer Society, which was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

“Among adults younger than 50 years, CRC is now the leading cause of cancer death in men and the second-leading cause in women (behind breast cancer), despite ranking fourth in 1998,” the report reads. “Additionally, cancer patients are increasingly shifting from older to middle-aged individuals who have many more years of life expectancy, and thus, opportunity to experience the late effects of treatment, including subsequent cancers.”

Other findings include:

• Cancer mortality overall declined 33% from 1991 to 2021 due to reductions in smoking, earlier detection, and improved treatment.
• More than 2 million new US cancer cases and 611,720 deaths are projected to occur in 2024.
• Incidence continues to increase for 6 of the top 10 cancers, including breast, prostate, uterine corpus, pancreas, oropharynx, liver (female), kidney, melanoma, and in young adults, colorectal and cervical.
• Racial disparities persist, such as a higher mortality rate for breast cancer in Black women and for liver, stomach and kidney cancers in Native Americans.