The improved outcomes are “truly formidable”, Karen Knudsen, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, told CNN. “New revelations for prevention, for early detection and for treatment have resulted in true, meaningful gains in many of the 200 diseases that we call cancer.”
Perhaps the most striking change was a “65% drop in cervical cancer incidence during 2012 through 2019 among women in their early 20s”, the report said – “the first cohort to receive the human papillomavirus [HPV] vaccine”. There were also some cancer resurgences, the report found. For example, after declining for two decades, prostate cancer increased 3% annually from 2014 to 2019 – a reversal that researchers described as concerning. The study drew on data from central cancer registries and the National Center for Health Statistics.