American Cancer Society Reports Decreased Mortality, Increased Diagnosis in Women and Young Adults
Jaimee Mannix, MD, (right) examines a breast imaging scan with a resident. The American Cancer Society released new data marking decreased cancer mortality but increased diagnoses in women and young adults.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and impacts millions of people each year. While often devastating news, a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) found that fewer Americans are dying from the disease despite new diagnoses being on the rise for certain populations.
From 1991 to 2022, cancer mortality rates declined by 34%, averting approximately 4.5 million deaths. Living with cancer has improved thanks to medical innovation and lifestyle changes, but ACS found a troubling rise of new diagnoses in women and young adults. According to the report, “incidence rates in women 50-64 years of age have surpassed those in men, and rates in women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts.”
One area seeing an uptick in new diagnoses is breast cancer. Jaimee E. Mannix, MD, assistant professor of radiology in breast imaging for WashU Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR), said the chances of dying from breast cancer have decreased thanks to improvements in screenings and treatment, but the increase of incidents is troubling.
“The major clue is probably that most of these cancers are what we call ‘hormone-receptor positive,’ meaning that they respond to estrogen and or progesterone, which are hormones that we normally produce in our bodies, but these cancers grow in response to those hormones.” Mannix said the onset of puberty in girls is happening earlier in life and menopause is ocurring at later ages, which can lead to greater estrogen exposure in a lifetime. She also cites pregnancy status and lifestyle choices as possible contributing factors.
The ACS report details “alarming inequalities” in mortality rates based on the population. For example, “Black people are twice as likely to die of prostate, stomach and uterine corpus cancers compared to White people and 50% more likely to die from cervical cancer, which is preventable.”
Mannix added that Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with more aggressive cancers and noted the role that access to quality screening and treatment facilities plays in health outcomes.
Schedule a wellness screening or mammogram today.
