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2005 Cancer Statistics

The American Cancer Society (ACS) released the 2005 edition of its annual publication, Cancer Facts & Figures, which provides a concise summary of the most frequently used cancer statistics, estimates of new cancer diagnoses and deaths for the current year, and national and state data on incidence, mortality, survival, and cancer risk factors. The report is available on the American Cancer Society Web site at http://www.cancer.org.

This year's edition also features a special section on cancers caused by infectious disease. The report estimates that in 2005, 17 percent of new cancer diagnoses worldwide will be attributable to infection. These figures include 5 million diagnoses (26 percent of new cases) in developing countries and 360,000 diagnoses (7.3 percent of new cases) in developed countries.

Other statistics include:

* In 2005, an estimated 1,372,910 new cancer diagnoses and approximately 570,280 cancer deaths (1,500 per day) are expected in the United States, where cancer causes one out of every four deaths.

* Lung cancer remains the number one cause of cancer death in the United States, with an estimated 171,900 new diagnoses and 163,510 deaths expected in 2005; incidence and death rates from lung cancer continue to decrease in men and decreased for the first time in women from 1998 to 2001.

* The five-year survival rate for all cancers is now 64 percent, up from 50 percent in the 1970s.

* The death rate from cancer among black men is about 1.4 times higher than that of white men. For black women, the death rate is 1.2 times higher than that of white women.

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group