Studies have shown that over the past few decades, the mortality rate of cancer patients has steadily declined. Although the death rates have dropped across the board, the most significant decline has been seen in the younger patients. According to the study, conducted by the American Association for Cancer Research, the decline began to accelerate gradually 30 years ago, with the death rates expected to drop even further in the next decade.
Why has there been a drop? Eric Kort a scientist at Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich. Says:
“Our efforts against cancer, including prevention, early detection and better treatment, have resulted in profound gains, but these gains are often unappreciated by the public due to the way the data are usually reported”
Unfortunately, even with the current rate of decline, cancer will still surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death, in the year 2010. Despite the declines, heart disease continues to show larger drops in the mortality rate, and cancer incidence rates continue to grow, nullifying the declining percentage of death rates.
“When calculating proportional mortality, we start with the assumption that everyone dies of something eventually, so you take 100 deaths and calculate, based on death certificates, what those people have died from” said Richard Severson, Ph.D., a cancer epidemiologist and associate chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences
Regardless of the continuing growth in incidence rates, increasingly effective screening and treatment are continuing to prove that childhood cancer, such as lymphoma, do not need to be a death sentence.