Cancer deaths are down, but cancer in women and young people is up, yearly study finds

The American Cancer Society’s latest cancer report shows both positive and concerning trends: overall cancer deaths are down but the number of women and young adults with cancer is up. 

The annual report, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, found the cancer mortality rate declined 34% from 1991 to 2022 in the United States. 

While overall cancer deaths are in decline, thanks to factors like earlier detection and better treatments, that’s not true for all cancers. Death rates are increasing for certain types, including oral, pancreatic, uterine and liver cancers, the report found. 

Racial inequalities in cancer deaths also persist, the report highlighted.

Rates in Native American people are double or triple the rates of White people for kidney, liver, stomach and cervical cancers. Black people are twice as likely to die of prostate, stomach and uterine cancers compared with White people and 50% more likely to die from preventable cervical cancer.

The report also found that more women and young adults are having cancer, a shift. Cancer cases in women aged 50 to 64 have surpassed those in men, for example. And cancer rates in women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts, which is up from 51% in 2002.

“One thing we found out really striking in this report is for an increase in the number of women being diagnosed with cancer, particularly in the 50 to 64 age, compared to men,” Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society told CBS News. “Seeing this trend over time is certainly concerning and something we need to take a look at.”

The report did not determine why we’re seeing these increases, but obesity rates as well as genetic and environmental factors may be at play, Dahut said. 

And despite pancreatic cancer being the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., the report found progress on this front is lagging. In a press briefing Tuesday, Dahut said that detecting pancreatic cancers at a treatable stage is difficult, and called for more screening and treatment options. 

“This is something that really and rightly so has gotten the attention of really the scientific community with a focus, hopefully on really detecting pancreatic cancer earlier on, because it is a very difficult cancer to treat once it’s regionally metastatic (when it has spread to nearby organs or lymph node),” he said.