American Cancer Society researchers looked at cancer incidence and death rates from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Database, and the U.S. Cancer Statistics database from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cancer accounted for 18% of the 3.3 million recorded deaths in 2020, the latest year data is available, and is the second leading cause of death after heart disease.
While mortality rates have been dropping overall up until 2020 – by 55% among men since 1980 and 61% in women since 1969 – deaths among people younger than 50 have increased by 1.2% annually from 2005 to 2020.But still, the overall risk for colon cancer is small and falling, Dr. Gil Welch, a senior researcher at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told USA TODAY last year.
The report found a 65% reduction in cervical cancer rates in women ages 20 to 24 from 2012 through 2019.