CDC Press Release: Rates of new lung cancer cases drop in U.S. men and women

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent this bulletin at 01/09/2014 02:28 PM EST

Press Release

Rates of new lung cancer cases drop in U.S. men and women

CDC report finds fastest drop in adults aged 35-44 years

Tobacco control efforts are having a major impact on Americans’ health, a new analysis of lung-cancer data suggests. The rate of new lung cancer cases decreased among men and women in the United States from 2005 to 2009, according to a report in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The study also found that lung cancer incidence rates went down 2.6 percent per year among men, from 87 to 78 cases per 100,000 men and 1.1 percent per year among women, from 57 to 54 cases per 100,000 women.

The fastest drop was among adults aged 35-44 years, decreasing 6.5 percent per year among men and 5.8 percent per year among women. Lung cancer incidence rates decreased more rapidly among men than among women in all age groups. Among adults aged 35-44 years, men had slightly lower rates of lung cancer incidence than women.

“These dramatic declines in the number of young adults with lung cancer show that tobacco prevention and control programs work – when they are applied,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among both men and women in the United States. Most lung cancers are attributable to cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke. Because smoking behaviors among women are now similar to those among men, women are now experiencing the same risk of lung cancer as men.

“While it is encouraging that lung cancer incidence rates are dropping in the United States, one preventable cancer is one too many,” Dr. Frieden said. “Implementation of tobacco control strategies is needed to reduce smoking prevalence and the lung cancer it causes among men and women.”