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Monday, April 21, 2025
Overall cancer death rates declined steadily in both men and women from 2001 to 2022.
From 2001 to 2022, overall cancer mortality rates declined among women, men, and children.National Cancer Institute
What
Overall cancer death rates declined steadily among men and women from 2001 to 2022, even during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2024 Annual Cancer Status Report to the Nation. Among men, overall cancer incidence, as measured by the rate of new cancer diagnoses, declined from 2001 to 2013 and then leveled off through 2021. Among women, overall cancer incidence increased slightly each year from 2003 to 2021, with the exception of 2020. The report was released on April 21, 2025, in Cancer.
Progress in reducing overall cancer deaths is largely the result of declining incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer and several other smoking-related cancers, the researchers noted. New diagnoses and deaths from lung cancer, for example, have declined in both men and women over the past 20 years. At the same time, the incidence of cancers associated with obesity is rising. These include breast, uterine, colorectal, pancreatic, kidney, and liver cancers in women.
The report also shows that new breast cancer diagnoses gradually increased during the study period, but the overall breast cancer death rate declined. Cancer death rates among children declined steadily during the study period; those among adolescents and young adults also declined until recently, when the decline slowed and stabilized. From 2018 to 2022, cancer deaths declined for every major racial and ethnic population group. From 2017 to 2021 (excluding 2020), cancer incidence remained stable among males in every major racial and ethnic population group, but increased among females in every major racial and ethnic population group. During the same period, among males, the incidence was highest among non-Hispanic Black males, while among females, the incidence was highest among American Indian and Alaska Native women.
The report also included an analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer incidence observed across states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico during the first two years of the pandemic. Cancer incidence declined sharply in 2020, likely due to pandemic-related health care disruptions, but returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. The magnitude of the 2020 decline was similar across states, despite variations in COVID-19 policy restrictions. The researchers noted that these findings underscore the importance of providing access to health care, even during a public health emergency, to ensure timely cancer diagnosis.
The Annual Report to the Nation on the State of Cancer is a collaborative effort between the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the American Cancer Society (ACS); and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR). The report provides annual updates on cancer trends in the United States.
The report is based on cancer incidence data from population-based cancer registries funded by the CDC and NCI and compiled by the NAACCR, and on cancer death data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics.
For more information on the report, see: https://seer.cancer.gov/report_to_nation/.
Who
- NAACCR: Recinda L. Sherman, Ph.D., MPH
- ACS: Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, Ph.D.
- CDC: Jane Henley, MSPH, and Lisa C. Richardson, MD, MPH
- NIH: Serban Negoita, MD, Dr.PH, and Kathleen A. Cronin, Ph.D., MPH
The study
“Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, Featuring State-Level Statistics after the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic” appears April 21, 2025 in Cancer.
About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): The NCI leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH's efforts to significantly reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families through research on cancer prevention and biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website atcancer.govor call the NCI Contact Center, Cancer Information Service, at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
About the American Cancer Society (ACS): The American Cancer Society is a global grassroots force of 1.5 million volunteers dedicated to saving lives, celebrating lives, and leading the fight for a world without cancer. For more than 100 years, the American Cancer Society has been America's leading cancer organization through research, education, advocacy, and patient services. We have helped evolve the way the world prevents, detects, treats, and thinks about cancer. For more information, visit www.cancer.org.
About the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Whether diseases begin at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or result from human activity or deliberate attack, CDC's world-renowned experts protect lives and livelihoods, national security, and the U.S. economy by providing timely, common-sense information, and by quickly identifying and responding to illnesses, including epidemics and diseases. CDC drives science, public health research, and data innovation in communities across the country by investing in local initiatives to protect the health of all. For more information, see www.cdc.gov.
About the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR): The North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, Inc., is a professional organization that develops and promotes uniform data standards for cancer registration; provides education and training; certifies population-based registries; aggregates and publishes data from central cancer registries; and promotes the use of cancer surveillance data and systems for cancer control and epidemiologic research, public health programs, and patient care to reduce the burden of cancer in North America. For more information, see naaccr.org.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):The NIH, the nation's medical research agency, comprises 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for common and rare diseases. For more information about the NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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