More patients are surviving cancer, but incident rates rising among women and younger adults: ACS report

Though cancer mortality overall is dropping, the burden of disease is shifting to women and younger adults, the American Cancer Society (ACS) reported Thursday.

The cancer mortality rate dropped by 34% from 1991 to 2022. This saved about 4.5 million lives. Still, incidence rates in women between ages 50 and 64 have surpassed men, and rates in women under 50 are 82% higher than in men, according to a new ACS report. 

The ACS predicts in 2025 there will be more than 2.04 million new cancer diagnoses and 618,120 cancer deaths.

Death rates are on the rise for certain cancers: oral cavity, pancreas, uterine corpus and liver (in females). Additionally, striking inequities in deaths remain. Native Americans die at rates up to three times higher than white people for kidney, liver, stomach and cervical cancers. Black people are twice as likely to die of prostate, stomach and uterine corpus cancers compared to whites and 50% more likely to die from cervical cancer, which is preventable.

“Continued reductions in cancer mortality because of drops in smoking, better treatment and earlier detection is certainly great news,” Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the ACS and lead author of the report, said in a statement. “However, this progress is tempered by rising incidence in young and middle-aged women, who are often the family caregivers, and a shifting cancer burden from men to women, harkening back to the early 1900s when cancer was more common in women.”

The rate of new diagnoses of colorectal cancer in both men and women younger than 65 has increased, as has cervical cancer in women 30 to 44. Cancer incidence in children declined in recent years but continued rising in teenagers. Pediatric mortality rates in both kids and teens have dropped notably since 1970, largely because of improved treatment for leukemia.

The report also found lagging progress against pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Incidence and mortality rates are on the rise, and the five-year survival rate is just 8% for people diagnosed with pancreatic exocrine tumors, the most common type. This cancer is particularly difficult to diagnose early and therefore to treat.

Screening tests must be personalized, including family history, William Dahut, M.D., chief scientific officer at the ACS, said in a virtual webinar ahead of the release of the report. “Knowing that will really drive our cancer screening questions and guidelines,” Dahut said. He also stressed the importance of being proactive around a healthy diet, exercise, avoiding tobacco, moderate use of alcohol and getting vaccinations. 

Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the ACS' advocacy affiliate, emphasized in a statement the importance of ongoing investment in research and policies that preserve access to care. 

“In the first 100 days of the 119th Congress, we’re urging lawmakers to protect and increase federal funding for lifesaving cancer research as well as ... protecting the Medicaid program and extending the enhanced ACA tax credits that have made health insurance affordable," Lacasse said. "The evidence is clear -- affordable, quality health insurance coverage is inextricably linked to an individual’s cancer outcome.”