While the cause of some cancers may not be known, personal choices can eliminate or drastically reduce the chances of getting other cancers. Cancer prevention is, to a large degree, about lifestyle.
That's according to the American Cancer Society's just-released "Cancer Facts and Figures," which takes both a national and state-by-state look at cancer statistics and offers cancer-prevention strategies.
Some 5,100 Utahns will be diagnosed with cancer this year. And about 2,300 Utahns will die from cancer.
Nationally, 1.2 million cancer cases will be diagnosed this year and nearly half that number, 552,200 people, will die of cancer. And the National Institutes of Health estimate the annual costs for cancer at $107 billion — $37 billion for direct medical costs, $11 billion for the cost of lost productivity due to illness and $59 billion for lost productivity due to premature death. Treatment of breast, lung and prostate cancers account for over half the direct medical costs.
A great many of those cancers and subsequent deaths are preventable, according to the booklet, including all the cancers caused by cigarette smoking and heavy use of alcohol. In the year 2000, tobacco is expected to lead to 171,000 cancer deaths, while about 19,000 deaths will be attributable to alcohol use, "frequently in combination with tobacco use."
A third of the deaths are expected to have nutrition and lifestyle factors as their cause. And certain other cancers, related to viral infections, could be prevented through behavioral changes. Add in the number of skin cancers that could have been prevented by protection from the sun's rays, and it's a significant number that might have been prevented.
People can also impact the outcomes of cancer cases through early detection. The earlier a cancer is detected, the easier and more successful the treatment is likely to be, the society says.
"Regular screening examinations by a health care professional can result in the detection of cancers of the breast, color, rectum, cervix, prostate, testis, oral cavity and skin at earlier stages, when treatment is more likely to be successful," the book says. "Self-examinations for cancer of the breast and skin may also result in detection of tumors at earlier stages."
The cancers that can be screened for easily account for half of all new cancer cases. "The five-year relative survival rate for these cancers is about 80 percent. If all Americans participated in regular cancer screenings, this rate could increase to 95 percent."
The society's projections put prostate cancer as the top of newly detected cancer this year, with 1,200 cases. That's followed by breast cancer (900), colon and rectum cancer (600), lung cancer and melanoma (400 each), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (300), urinary bladder and uterine corpus (200 each) and kidney and uterine cervix cancers (100 each). Other cancers account for the remaining cases.
The report also contains a special section on childhood cancers. While children make up almost one-third of the American population, cancer is rare in those under 20; nevertheless, 12,400 children are expected to be diagnosed this year. And 2,300 children will die of cancer.
The cancer society's studies have shown 12 major categories of childhood cancer and that the incidence of childhood cancer is highest among whites, intermediate among Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders and blacks and lowest among American Indians and Alaskan natives. Overall, in adults, blacks have the highest cancer rates, followed by whites, Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders and American Indians.
To receive a copy of "Cancer Facts and Figures," call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345.