10 Fast Facts
To shed some light on cancer and its conditions, here are 10 facts and myths that people should know about cancer and its treatment.
- Most cancer occurs in older people. Close to 80 percent of all cancer diagnoses occur in people age 55 years and older. Part of that reason may be that they seek medical attention more often than younger patients, resulting in higher rates of discovery.
- Smoking is still a leading cause of cancer death. In 2015, there were an estimated 589,000 cancer deaths in the United States. Of those deaths, almost 171,000 were attributed to tobacco smoking. Combining smoking with any other risk factor -- heavy alcohol consumption, obesity and family history, to name a few -- can turn patients into a walking time bomb.
- A lot of people get cancer. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) report that almost 14.5 million Americans who had cancer at some point were still alive as of Jan. 1, 2014. About 1.6 million new cases are expected to occur this year, but that does not include carcinoma in situ (noninvasive cancer) of any site except urinary bladder, basal cell or squamous cell skin cancers. Those types are not reported to cancer registries.
- The survival rate from cancer is rising. The five-year survival rate for all cancers diagnosed from 2004 to 2010 was 68 percent, up from 49 percent in 1975 to 1977. Earlier diagnosis and improvement in treatments are the reason.
- Cancer is more than one disease. Cancer is actually more than 100 different diseases, most of which have the abnormal growth of cells in common to form a tumor. Benign tumors (non-cancerous) do not spread, but malignant tumors can invade other body parts and tissues.
- The most common cancer is… The most common type of cancer is non-melanoma skin cancer, which includes basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. There are more than 1 million annual cases in the United States each year, most of them related to exposure to UV radiation from the sun, tanning booths and sunlamps.
- Gender and ethnicity play a role. Men get cancer at slightly higher rates than women, and cancer researchers track ethnicity to determine which types of cancers affect which groups. The results are all over the map. In California, black men are five times more likely to die of cancer than South Asian men, but liver and stomach cancers are more common among Asians than blacks. Understanding why this happens is a key to developing new treatments and ways to help prevent new cases.