U.S. cancer rates continue to decline in racial and ethnic populations

Good news in the fight against cancer! A new report from leading health and cancer organizations shows national cancer rates continue to decline.

Rates of new cases and deaths from all cancers decreased significantly from 1999 to 2006 for men and women and for most racial and ethnic populations in the United States.

Doctor Edward J. Benz Junior is president of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He says the news is encouraging. "I think the bottom line of this report is that it's a bit of good news, but it shows how long a way we have to go."

The report is published online in the journal Cancer. The findings show new diagnoses for all types of cancer were down almost one percent and cancer deaths decreased one point six percent per year from 2001 to 2006. The type of cancers reporting the largest declines for men are lung, prostate and colorectal. In women, the drops are in breast and colorectal cancer.

Dr. Benz says the research shows we're moving in the right direction, but the hard work needs to continue."You look at what forms of cancer are experiencing those declines and what the reasons are, it really shows the need for a comprehensive approach. Because it's prevention, it's early detection and screening and it's better treatments, so we need to keep moving on all those fronts."