Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer: 1975-2003

(ANNOUNCER OPEN):
A new report from some of the nation’s leading cancer organizations finds that Americans’ risk of dying from cancer continues to drop—maintaining a trend that began in the early ’90s. However, the rate of new cancers remains stable. Specifically, according to the latest “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer”, death rates decreased for 11 of the 15 most-common cancers in men—and for 10 of the 15 most-common cancers in women. The authors attribute this decrease, in part, to successful efforts to reduce exposure to tobacco, earlier detection through screening, and more-effective treatment—and say that continued success will depend on maintaining and enhancing these efforts. One of the study’s authors is Dr. Amelie Ramirez, of Baylor College of Medicine…

(RAMIREZ):
“The greater decline in cancer death rates among men is due in large part to their substantial decrease in tobacco use. We need to enhance efforts to reduce tobacco use in women—so that, hopefully, their rate of decline in cancer death rates will become comparable to that of men.”

(ANNOUNCER):
In addition, this year’s report includes a special section on cancer among U-S Latino and Hispanic populations; it finds that, for the period from 1999 to 2003, Latinos had lower incidence rates than non-Hispanic whites for most cancers—but were less likely to be diagnosed with localized-stage disease for cancers of the lung, colon and rectum, prostate, female breast, and cervix…

(RAMIREZ):
“The information in this report about lower Latino cancer rates is very encouraging—but also points to the urgent need to educate people about ways both to reduce their cancer risk, and to keep rates such as these as low as possible.”

(ANNOUNCER CLOSE):
The report is published online on September 6th—and in the October 15th print issue of the journal “Cancer”. For more information, visit www.cancer.gov.

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