The American Association for Cancer Research has released its 2024 Cancer Progress Report, which tracks advancements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer diseases.
This year the report highlights an overall drop in mortality rates from cancer, which have fallen 33% from 1991 to 2021.
This represents a reduction of 4.1 million deaths from cancer, which the organization says is mostly due to the decline in smoking and improvements in cancer treatment and early detection.
Breakthroughs in cancer research are also leading more people to survive with a history of cancer. More than 18 million such people were alive in the U.S. in 2022. By 2040, the count is expected to be 26 million.
But the group says progress has not been uniform: certain types of cancer are still on the rise, including pancreatic and uterine cancers and colorectal cancer in adults under the age of 50.
A May study found colorectal cancer has become far more common among young people in the U.S., where it more than tripled among teenagers from 1999 to 2020.
Experts can’t say for sure what’s causing increased rates, though some hypothesize that changes to the human gut microbiome may play a part, possibly due to exposure to increased chemicals or microplastic contamination.
Minority racial groups also face a disproportionate burden from cancer diseases overall, since they are often still medically underserved.
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Overall, AACR says, some two million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. through 2024.
“The burden of cancer and its economic toll, both on individuals and on the US health care system, are expected to rise in the coming decades, underscoring the urgent need for more research in medicine and public health to accelerate the pace of progress against cancer,” the group wrote in its report.
