SEER in the News
Report to the Nation shows U.S. cancer death rates continue to drop
January 7, 2013 - The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2009, shows that overall cancer death rates continued to decline in the United States among both men and women, among all major racial and ethnic groups, and for all of the most common cancer sites, including lung, colon and rectum, female breast, and prostate. However, the report also shows that death rates continued to increase during the latest time period (2000 through 2009) for melanoma of the skin (among men only) and for cancers of the liver, pancreas, and uterus. The special feature section on human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers shows that incidence rates are increasing for HPV-associated oropharyngeal and anal cancers and that vaccination coverage levels in the U.S. during 2008 and 2010 remained low among adolescent girls.
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Decades of Data Point to Overdiagnosis from Breast Cancer Screening
November 27, 2012 - Since breast cancer screening came into widespread use in the United States in the 1970s, more than 1 million women may have been diagnosed with cancers that never would have caused them harm or required treatment, a new study suggests. These women may have been exposed unnecessarily to the adverse effects of treatment, the authors reported in the November 22 New England Journal of Medicine.
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Longer Delays in Breast Cancer Treatment May Affect Survival
November 27, 2012 - Delays between a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment increase the risk of death for women with late-stage cancers, according to a study published November 19 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO). A second study appearing in the same issue of JCO found that the median wait time between diagnosis and treatment has grown longer. According to the authors, findings from the studies may provide data that can be used to develop quality measures for breast cancer care.
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US Prostate Cancer Incidence Falls after Change in Screening Recommendations
August 7, 2012 - Soon after an independent task force recommended against routine screening of men aged 75 and older for prostate cancer with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, the incidence of early-stage prostate tumors in that population declined, a new analysis shows. The findings suggest that the revised recommendations led to a reduction in prostate cancer screening rates in older men.
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Survival Differences Persist Between Black and White Children with Cancer
May 2, 2012 - Despite substantial improvements in childhood cancer survival over the past several decades, racial disparities in survival rates persist - and, in fact, have worsened for some cancer types - according to a study published online April 30 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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Hispanic Lung Cancer Patients Tend to Live Longer than Blacks and Whites
April 26, 2012 - A new analysis has found that Hispanic lung cancer patients seem to live longer than white or black patients. The study suggests that, as with several other types of cancer, certain yet-to-be-defined genetic and/or environmental factors put Hispanic patients at a survival advantage. Most studies that look at ethnic and racial disparities in lung cancer compare black patients with whites. The study was published in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
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Report to the Nation Finds Continuing Declines in Cancer Death Rates Since the Early 1990s
March 28, 2012 - Death rates from all cancers combined for men, women, and children continued to decline in the United States
between 2004 and 2008, according to the Annual Report to the
Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2008. The overall rate of
new cancer diagnoses, also known as incidence, among men
decreased by an average of 0.6 percent per year between 2004
and 2008. Overall cancer incidence rates among women declined
0.5 percent per year from 1998 through 2006 with rates leveling
off from 2006 through 2008.
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NIH study finds broad spectrum of cancer risk for organ transplant recipients in US
November 22, 2011 - Organ transplant recipients in the United States have a high risk of developing 32 different types of cancer, according to a new study of transplant recipients which fully describes the range of malignancies that occur. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and their colleagues evaluated medical data from more than 175,700 transplant recipients, accounting for about 40 percent of all organ transplant recipients in the country.
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Bladder Cancer Treatment Often Haphazard
July 12, 2011 - Guidelines for treating bladder cancer are largely ignored, according to a study showing that only 1% of providers delivered the full gamut of recommended care to at least one patient in their practice. These results from the national Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database linked with Medicare claims were reported online in Cancer.
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SEER Data Finds Men Diagnosed With Cancer More Likely to Die From the Disease Than Women
July 12, 2011 - The National Cancer Institute study looked at a database of 36 different types of cancer from 1977 to 2006. It found the highest male-to-female mortality rate ratios for cancers like lip, where 5.5 men died for each woman patient, and esophageal, where 4 men died for each woman patient. For lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths for both men and women, the research found 2.3 male deaths for each female death.
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Report to Nation Finds Continued Declines in Many Cancer Rates; Special Feature on Brain Tumor Rates and Survival
March 31, 2011 - Rates of death in the United States from all cancers for men and women continued to decline between 2003 and 2007, the most recent reporting period available, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer. The report also finds that the overall rate of new cancer diagnoses for men and women combined decreased an average of slightly less than 1 percent per year for the same period.
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U.S. Cancer Survivors Grow To Nearly 12 Million
March 10, 2011 - The number of cancer survivors in the United States increased to 11.7 million in 2007, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. There were 3 million cancer survivors in 1971 and 9.8 million in 2001.
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Scarlett Lin Gomez honored as the AJPH Author of the Year
December 13, 2010 - Cancer Prevention Institute of California Research Scientist Scarlett Lin Gomez, Ph.D., has been named "2010 American Journal of Public Health Author of the Year." Dr. Gomez is the recipient of the award as a result of her research article based on her study of breast cancer in Asian American groups titled, "Disparities in Breast Cancer Survival Among Asian Women by Ethnicity and Immigrant Status."
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Cancer Screening Continues Even after Patients Are Diagnosed with Terminal Cancer
October 19, 2010 - A number of patients with advanced, incurable cancer continue to undergo routine cancer screening tests that are unlikely to provide any medical benefit, reported researchers led by Dr. Camelia Sima from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in the October 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
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Cancer Patients Leaving Hospice Early Boost Medicare Expenditures
September 7, 2010 - An analysis of hospice patients with terminal cancer using SEER-Medicare linked data indicates that those who disenrolled from hospice care had higher rates of hospitalization, were more likely to die in a hospital, and incurred higher Medicare expenditures between hospice enrollment and death than patients who continued hospice care until death. The researchers adjusted for a number of factors, including the number of days from hospice enrollment until death, and found that total Medicare expenditures were $2,475 higher, on average, among the patients who disenrolled from hospice. The analysis was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology August 30.
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Rectal Cancer Rates Are Rising in Young Individuals
August 23, 2010 - A new analysis has found that while colon cancer rates have remained steady over the past several decades among people under the age of 40, rectal cancer rates are increasing in this population across races and in both sexes. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that greater efforts are needed to diagnose rectal cancer in young individuals who show potential signs of the disease.
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Brain Cancer Incidence Trends Do Not Support Link to Cell Phones
July 27, 2010 - A new analysis by NCI researchers has turned up no evidence to support a link between cell phone use and brain cancer in the United States. The analysis was carried out in view of concerns about a possible link between widespread use of cell phones and brain cancer risk. With more than 279 million U.S. wireless subscribers today, the researchers reasoned that it should be possible to detect an increase in brain cancer rates over time if, in fact, cell phone use does contribute to risk of this particular cancer. The caveat would be that no effect would be expected if the induction period for brain tumors is very long or increased risk is limited to long-term users.
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2010 Cancer Facts and Figures uses SEER and NAACCR data
June 15, 2010 - Cancer Facts & Figures for 2010 (PDF) has just been released by the American Cancer Society, with a special section on prostate cancer. Incidence data are from SEER and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR). Mortality data are from the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Scarlett Lin Gomez Speaks at an APIAHF National Press Club Event
May 6, 2010 - Scarlett Lin Gomez from the Cancer Prevention Institute of California spoke at an event, at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The Forum, entitled "Beyond Reform: Health Concerns and Disparities among America's Fastest Growing Populations," was hosted by the Asian Pacific Islander Health Forum (APIAHF) and the Kellogg Foundation, and addressed health disparities among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders. The event launched the American Journal of Public Health's recent special issue, which highlighted the health of Asian and Pacific Islander populations in the United States.
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Trends Suggest Increase in Cancers of the Lower Stomach for Younger Whites in U.S.
May 4, 2010 - Cancer of the lower stomach has decreased overall in American adults but has increased in whites age 25-39, a study finds. The work, led by researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is published in the May 5, 2010, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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