Between 2016 and 2017, the U.S. cancer death rate dropped 2.2%, according to new data from the American Cancer Society. The drop marks the largest single-year decline ever recorded.
Among the factors attributed to the decline are reduced smoking rates and new treatments for a variety of cancers, including lung cancer and melanoma. Despite the progress, the data showed that rates of obesity-related cancers, including liver, kidney, and pancreatic cancer, are increasing.
“What we’re seeing with obesity is really sort of parallel to what we saw with cigarette smoking,” Timothy Rebbeck, Vincent L. Gregory, Jr. Professor of Cancer Prevention at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director and of the Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention, said in a January 8, 2020, New York Times article.
Read the New York Times article: Cancer Death Rate in U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop