Hello, I'm doctor Otis Brawley every year the American Cancer Society
publishes cancer statistics for the United States
the 2011 version is available right now
the leading cancers it diagnosis for men
are prostate, lung, colorectal cancer
and urinary bladder cancer leading for cancers for women in order are breast,
lung, colorectal in uterine cancer
the most common causes of cancer death in men
are long followed by prostate colorectal and pancreas
and women are lung breast
colorectal and pancreas in this slide
you see the absolute number people dying in the United States starting in the
mid-nineteen seventies and going onward to 2007
that is the blue line
the redline is how many people we estimate would have died
if the cancer rate of death would have continued
at its 1991 rate something very important happen in 1991
and that is that the risk death in the United States started going down indeed
in american today
has a 17 18 percent lower risk of dying of cancer then
American in 1991 with this
estimate the integration of those red
up and down lines we estimate that 900,000 Americans did not die
between 1991 in 2007
because the institution of cancer prevention and control
are I interventions this is smoking cessation
improvements in treatment improvements in screening
in this like you can see death rates from cancer for women from 1930 to 2007
you can see in the pink line a decline in the
death rate from breast cancer that started in the late nineteen eighties
indeed the death greater risk of death from breast cancer for american women
has decreased by 34 percent over the last 25 years
you also see in grey there a dramatic rise
in lung cancer death rates among women are
lung cancer death rate among women are only starting to decline in the last
several years
this is because men actually started
decreasing their smoking rates well before women did
each additional cancer facts & figures has a special section looking at one
particular problem
this year we look a cancer disparities in premature deaths
new method to the analysis actually give us greater insight
into cancer disparities this slide shows us the total number premature deaths
that is cancer deaths for people ages 25 to 64
that could have been avoided in 2007 by eliminating
economic in racial disparities more than 60,000 cancer deaths
would have been avoided in that year if there were no economic or racial
disparities in cancer
in this slide we see the total number premature deaths that is deaths from
cancer for people aged 25 to 64
that could have been avoided in 2007 by eliminating
economic and racial disparities among african-americans
black americans have the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group in the
United States
if blacks had the death rate of the most
educated Americans in the United States 41 percent of
deaths actually would have been avoided if blacks had
the white death rate only 20 percent of
deaths have been avoided socioeconomic statuses
is actually a much greater driver of the high death rate among blacks than is
race and in of
itself this has been a very brief
overview of cancer facts & figures
assessment of the actual numbers actually helps us understand what the
scientific problems truly are
helps us set a scientific agenda also helps us figure out
what policies need to be implemented if we're truly going to overcome cancer
thank you for listening