Delivering good news for our nation's health, a new report released by the nation's leading cancer organizations finds that, for the first time, both the incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for both men and women, driven in part by declines in smoking and lung cancer.
The report attributes much of the overall progress to declines in the three most common cancers among men (lung, colon/rectum and prostate) and the two most common cancers among women (breast and colon/rectum), combined with a leveling off of lung cancer death rates among women.
This report provides powerful and concrete evidence that efforts to reduce smoking, particularly at the state and local level, are paying off by saving lives and improving health. However, the report also provides troubling evidence that the federal government and the states are not doing nearly enough to implement scientifically proven solutions to reduce smoking. Lung cancer - the vast majority of which is caused by smoking - remains by far the leading cancer killer among both men and women. In addition, there are large state and regional disparities in lung cancer trends, especially among women, and these disparities not surprisingly coincide with higher smoking rates and fewer tobacco control activities. There is no question that, to win the war against cancer, we must also step up the fight against smoking, which causes 30 percent of all cancers, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.
In many ways, we have become a nation of haves and have-nots when it comes to reducing smoking and lung cancer. The most successful states have implemented a comprehensive, scientifically proven strategy that includes higher tobacco taxes, smoke-free workplace laws and well-funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs. In California, the first state to implement such a comprehensive strategy, lung cancer death rates declined an average of 2.8 percent per year among men from 1996 to 2005, more than twice the decline seen in many states in the Midwest and the South, the new report shows. In contrast, lung cancer death rates among women increased from 1996 through 2005 in 13 states and decreased only in three. As the report notes, these 13 states have higher percentages of female smokers, low tobacco excise tax rates, fewer tobacco control activities and local economies that are traditionally dependent on tobacco farming and production.
Every single case of tobacco-caused cancer is ultimately preventable. There is no question that we know how to dramatically reduce smoking and the many cancers and other devastating diseases it causes. What's needed is the political leadership to more aggressively implement these solutions nationally and in every state. Recent landmark reports by the Institute of Medicine and the President's Cancer Panel have agreed on the steps that Congress and the states must take to accelerate declines in tobacco use - and eventually eliminate the death and disease it causes: