Surveillance for Cancer Incidence and Mortality — United States, 2013

Surveillance Summaries / January 27, 2017 / 66(4);1–36

Simple D. Singh, MD1; S. Jane Henley, MSPH1; A. Blythe Ryerson, PhD1 (View author affiliations)

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Preface

This report provides, in tabular and graphic form, official federal statistics on cancer incidence and mortality for 2013 and trends for 1999–2013 as reported by CDC and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Data in this report come from the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) system (1), which includes cancer incidence data from population-based cancer registries that participate in CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program reported as of November 2015 and cancer mortality data from death certificate information reported to state vital statistics offices as of June 2015 and compiled into a national file for the entire United States by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

This report presents information on new cancer cases and deaths for 2013. The number and rate of cancer cases and deaths are stratified by the primary cancer sites as reported for 2013; information is provided by demographic characteristic (e.g., sex, age, race, and ethnicity) and primary cancer site (68 selected sites among men and 72 selected sites among women). Age-adjusted cancer incidence and death rates are shown by primary site and year for the period 1999–2013. Age-adjusted cancer incidence and death rates for the most common sites are shown by race, sex, and ethnicity for 2013, the most recent diagnosis year for which incidence data are available. Maps of the United States display age-adjusted cancer incidence and death rates, presented by quartiles, for 2013. Time trends in age-adjusted cancer incidence and death rates during 1999–2013 are shown for all sites combined, colorectal, lung and bronchus, prostate, and female breast by race, sex, and ethnicity.

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Background

Cancer comprises a diverse mix of diseases occurring in every part of the body and is a leading cause of death in the United States (2). More than half of cancer cases could be prevented (3). Surveillance of cancer incidence and mortality can help public health officials target areas for control efforts (4) and track progress toward meeting the national health objectives set forth in Healthy People 2020 (5). As of 2016, Healthy People 2020 objectives included reducing cancer deaths per 100,000 persons to 161.4 for all cancers, 45.5 for lung cancer, 20.7 for female breast cancer, 2.2 for cervical cancer, 14.5 for colorectal cancer, 2.3 for oropharyngeal cancer, 21.8 for prostate cancer, 2.4 for melanoma and reducing cancer incidence per 100,000 persons to 39.9 for colorectal cancer, 7.2 for cervical cancer, and 42.1 for late-stage female breast cancer (5).

Cancer is a reportable disease in every state and thus all hospitals, physicians’ offices, pathology laboratories, and other medical facilities are required to submit data on all reportable cancer diagnoses to a central cancer registry at the state or territorial level. A cancer registry is a database that contains individual records of all reportable cancer cases in a defined population and includes patient demographics, tumor characteristics (e.g., cancer site and pathology), and information about the notifying health provider or facility. Cancer control planners and others can identify variations in cancer rates by population subgroups and monitor trends over time to guide the planning and evaluation of cancer prevention and control programs and allocation of health resources.

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Data Sources

Data about cancer incidence and mortality come from the official federal statistics on cancer, the USCS dataset (1). The USCS dataset includes cancer incidence data from NPCR registries in 45 states and the District of Columbia (DC) (cancer incidence data from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Pacific Island Jurisdictions were not available for this analysis) and from SEER program registries in the remaining five states (Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico, and Utah) and cancer mortality data from NVSS. Incidence data included in USCS have met publication criteria.