[extropy-chat] heart deaths fall below cancer

[Damien Broderick]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/01/20/cancer-050120.html

Cancer passes heart disease as top killer in U.S.

Last Updated Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:49:53 EST
<http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/01/20//news/credit.html>CBC News

WASHINGTON - Cancer has surpassed heart disease for the first time as the 
top killer of Americans under age 85, the American Cancer Society says. [a 
particularly stupid way of putting it]

More people are surviving both illnesses, but the mortality rate of heart 
disease is plunging faster.

"It's dropping fast enough that another disease is eclipsing it," said Dr. 
Walter Tsou, president of the American Public Health Association.

The cancer society's annual statistical report, released Wednesday, says 
that 476,009 Americans under 85 died of cancer in 2002, the most recent 
year for which figures are available. That's slightly more than the 450,637 
who succumbed to heart disease.

The group predicts that 1.372 million Americans will be diagnosed with 
cancer in 2005 and more than half a million – 570,280 – will die of it. 
This doesn't include a million cases of two minor forms of skin cancer.

The death rate from all cancers has dropped by 1.5 per cent a year since 
1993 among men and 0.8 per cent a year since 1992 among women, the report 
says. It now kills about one in four Americans.

The single biggest reason for the cancer death rate's decline is that fewer 
people are smoking, the report said. Smoking rates plummeted between 1965 
to 2002, from 42 per cent to 22 per cent of the adult population.

Better screening methods and treatments have also helped keep more people 
alive, the report says.

According to the cancer society, smoking still causes a third of all cancer 
deaths and obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise cause another third – 
all factors that also contribute to heart disease.

"We want to send the message: Don't smoke, eat right, exercise and maintain 
normal weight, and see your doctor for normal checkups," said Dr. Harmon 
Eyre, the cancer society's chief medical officer.

In 2005, the society predicts there will be:

    * 163,510 deaths from lung cancer.
    * 56,290 deaths from colon cancer.
    * 40,870 deaths from breast cancer.
    * 30,350 deaths from prostate cancer.
    * 19,200 deaths from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
    * 7,770 deaths from melanoma.