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Excerpts from Cancer Rates Drop, Mostly for Men

By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press [04/20/99]

Fewer Americans are stricken with cancer every year, thanks largely to drops in smoking, scientists announced Tuesday.

The news is better for men: Although they still suffer more cancer than women do, the rate of new cancer cases is dropping eight times faster for men than for women, says the American Cancer Society's annual report on cancer.

Overall, cancer incidence has dropped 2.2 percent a year since 1992, says the new report, published in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which analyzed cancer trends through 1996.

Scientists warned on Tuesday that tobacco use could reverse the progress: Lung cancer remains the nation's top cancer killer, and recent declines in lung cancer among men who quit smoking in the 1970s and '80s helped fuel the overall declines in cancer incidence and mortality. But high teen smoking and new popularity for cigars have experts fearing a rebound.

Indeed, cigarette smoking by high school students rose a disturbing 32 percent during the 1990s, report said. And cigar smoking -- which a second study published in the cancer journal Tuesday concluded is as cancer-causing as cigarettes -- has reversed a 20-year decline, rising by 50 percent in the last four years.

Why the gender gap? It's partly due to lung cancer.

Scientists have known for several years that lung cancer incidence was slowly decreasing among men, by about 2.6 percent a year. At the same time, however, lung cancer was becoming a steadily bigger problem for women, who began to quit smoking later than men did. During the 1990s, lung cancer deaths rose 1.4 percent a year among women.

But Tuesday's report shows a glimmer of hope that women might be about to turn that tide: When scientists looked just at women ages 40 to 59 -- the age group that first began kicking the habit -- they found a slight decrease in lung cancer. That's the same age group in which the male lung cancer decline first appeared. So a similar finding in women is a clue that maybe women's fate is about to improve, too, Wingo explained.

             Percentage of adult and youth smokers (where available)and death
                  rates from lung cancer by state. Death rates are per 100,000:


                  State  Adult  Youth  DeathRates
                  Ala.   24.7   35.8   54.1
                  Alaska 26.7   N/A    52.4
                  Ariz.  21.1   N/A    45.0
                  Ark.   28.5   43.2   61.8
                  Calif. 18.4   26.6   43.8
                  Colo.  22.6   36.6   36.3
                  Conn.  21.8   35.2   44.0
                  Del.   26.6   35.0   59.9
                  D.C.   18.8   22.7   52.5
                  Fla.   23.6   33.6   51.4
                  Ga.    22.4   N/A    54.5
                  Hawaii 18.6   29.2   33.8
                  Idaho  19.9   N/A    37.8
                  Ill.   23.2   N/A    50.7
                  Ind.   26.3   N/A    55.4
                  Iowa   23.1   37.5   45.2
                  Kan.   22.7   N/A    46.1
                  Ky.    30.8   47.0   67.9
                  La.    24.6   36.4   60.5
                  Maine  22.7   39.2   56.4
                  Md.    20.6   N/A    54.4
                  Mass.  20.4   34.4   48.2
                  Mich.  26.1   38.2   50.8
                  Minn.  21.8   N/A    39.7
                  Miss.  23.2   31.3   56.0
                  Mo.    28.7   40.3   55.6
                  Mont.  20.5   N/A    43.7
                  Neb.   22.2   N/A    42.9
                  Nev.   27.7   29.4   58.0
                  N.H.   24.8   39.6   51.2
                  N.J.   21.5   37.9   48.1
                  N.M.   22.1   N/A    34.7
                  N.Y.   23.1   32.9   45.2
                  N.C.   25.8   35.8   53.5
                  N.D.   22.2   45.0   38.8
                  Ohio   25.1   34.5   54.2
                  Okla.  24.6   N/A    55.7
                  Ore.   20.7   N/A    50.8
                  Pa.    24.3   N/A    48.7
                  R.I.   24.2   25.4   51.1
                  S.C.   23.4   38.6   52.9
                  S.D.   24.3   44.0   41.0
                  Tenn.  26.9   38.6   59.7
                  Texas  22.6   N/A    51.1
                  Utah   13.7   16.4   21.7
                  Vt.    23.2   38.3   48.8
                  Va.    24.6   N/A    53.1
                  Wash.  23.9   N/A    48.7
                  W.Va.  27.4   41.9   60.9
                  Wis.   23.2   36.0   41.8
                  Wyo.   24.0   37.4   41.6
                  U.S.   23.1   36.4   49.7