CA-A Cancer Journal for Clinicians January/February 2002

American Cancer Society
Friday, 18 January 2002

Cancer Statistics, 2002 and ACS Screening Guidelines

Cancer now accounts for about one in four deaths in the United States, reports Ahmedin Jemal, PhD and colleagues of the American Cancer Society (ACS), in the January/February 2002 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

In fact, an estimated 555,500 Americans will die from cancer in the year 2002 and over half of those deaths will be due to one of the following four cancers: lung, colorectal, prostate, and breast. Other findings in Cancer Statistics, 2002 indicate that since 1991, overall cancer incidence and mortality rates declined at a rate of approximately 1.1 percent per year. "This progressive reduction in cancer incidence and mortality, now almost a decade in duration, is a triumph by any standard and a product of cancer prevention, early diagnosis, screening, and improved cancer treatment programs widely utilized throughout the country," writes Robert C. Young, MD, president of ACS, and president of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

A disturbing gap in the progress made is the fact that African Americans have the highest incidence and death rates for cancer and a poorer probability of survival once diagnosed with cancer. Nevertheless, here too there is some good news. This year, African-American men showed the largest decline in both incidence and mortality of any subgroup in the analysis. In part, says Young, this is because there was substantial room for improvement.

In this same issue of CA, Director of Cancer Screening for the ACS, Robert A. Smith, PhD and colleagues review recommendations for the "cancer-related check-up," summarize current screening guidelines and upcoming revisions, and provide a summary of the most recent data on US adult cancer screening rates. Smith and colleagues also call for further investigation into the efficacy of screening techniques such as the spiral CT scan for early lung cancer detection. If this technology is effective at identifying early, operable lung cancers, the public health impact could be substantial, the authors report. However, evidence-based results are needed before this diagnostic technique can be widely recommended.

Finally, an important column debuts in this issue of CA: Emerging Trends in Basic Science. This issue features the report The Progressing Clinical Utility of DNA Microarrays by Jill Macoska, PhD, Director of cDNA Microarray Facility at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI. Future reviews will cover other important developments in basic science, which are the building blocks for potentially revolutionary advances in the treatment of this disease.

CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, published for the American Cancer Society by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, is the most widely circulated cancer journal in the world. It appears six times a year and publishes articles, usually of a review nature, on all aspects of cancer detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

To obtain a copy of the January/February issue, arrange an interview with any of the authors or an American Cancer Society authority on any of these or other topics, please contact Joann Schellenbach at 212-382-2169 or via email (jschelle@cancer.org)

The CA Web site can be accessed via the newly redesigned American Cancer Society Web site, www.cancer.org where it features free, full-text versions of all articles that have been published since 1998.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy, and service.

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Inc. is a global publisher of medical, nursing, and allied health information resources in book, journal, looseleaf, and electronic media formats. The company is a unity of Wolters Kluwer International Health & Science, a group of leading publishing companies offering specialized publications and software in medicine, pharmacy, science, and related areas.

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org