Cancer stats: gains and losses.Cancer stats: Gains and losses The cancer death rate for people under 55 in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. decreased from 38.2 per 100,000 people in 1975 to 35.7 per 100,000 in 1984, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the annual National Cancer Institute (NCI See Liberate. ) cancer statistics update released this week. This 7 percent drop occurred despite a 0.2 percent yearly increase in the incidence rate in this age group between 1975 and 1984, according to the update, which covers incidence and death rates in the U.S. population through 1984 and five-year survival five-year survival Epidemiology The timespan that a person survives with a particular dread disease, in particular CA; 5YS facilitates standardization of survival statistics. See Cancer-free survival. rates through 1983. For white children under 15 (there were not enough cases reported in black children for analysis), the five-year survival rate improved from 54.7 percent to 62.1 percent. But a rise in the cancer death rate for people 55 and over, who account for about 76 percent of cancers, brought the death rate for the total U.S. population up about 0.5 percent per year since 1975 to 170.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 1984. Blacks continue to fare worse than whites. The five-year survival rate for whites diagnosed with cancer between 1977 and 1983 was calculated as 49.8; for blacks it was 37.6 percent. In commenting on the numbers, NCI has focused on the under-55 improvement. NCI head Vincent T. DeVita Vincent T. DeVita, Jr., MD is an internationally recognized pioneer physician in the field of oncology. DeVita earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the College of William and Mary in 1957. Jr. attributes the change to advances in treatment. But statistician John C. Bailar III of Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. , a frequent critic of NCI's handling of statistics, says that while there has been substantial progress within subgroups of the population, the overall figures show that general improvement is very slow. The overall five-year survival rate improvement from 48.6 percent of cancers diagnosed between 1974 and 1976 to 48.7 percent of cancers diagnosed between 1977 and 1983 is "nothing to crow about,' he says. "NCI is very selective in what figures it gives prominence prominence /prom·i·nence/ (prom´i-nins) a protrusion or projection. frontonasal prominence ,' he says. "I think it's unfair to the public and unfair to cancer victims and unfair to the news media and Congress to try to cover up the general failure [in the war on cancer] . . . by emphasizing the bright spots.' |
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