The American Cancer Society is an organization that is committed to tracking and reporting the incidence of cancer in the United States. Its website offers a wealth of cancer facts & statistics. For example, the agency tracks the overall occurrence of cancer in the population as well as the mortality and survival rates for people diagnosed with different types of cancer. It also tracks important data about social behaviors that are likely to have an effect upon the risk of developing certain types of cancer (such as smoking). It also tracks data about the use of screening tests that are used to uncover a person’s likelihood of developing certain types of cancers. All of this information is vitally important to understanding the causes of cancer and hopefully, can someday be used to help in the eradication of all forms of cancer.
One set of cancer facts and statistics that the American Cancer Society provides is the percentage of people who are diagnosed with different types of cancer each year. The data is organized by gender as well as race. In 2010, the agency reported that 28% of men in the United States were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Likewise, 28% of U.S. women were diagnosed with breast cancer. Fifteen percent of men and 14% of women were diagnosed with lung cancer. The American Cancer Society also determined that a man has a 1 in 6 chance of developing prostate cancer while a woman has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer. These cancer facts & statistics are helpful to give you an idea of your own risks for cancer.
In addition to information about cancer diagnosis in general, the American Cancer Society also publishes other cancer facts & statistics such as the mortality rates for people with different types of cancer. For example, cancer is the #2 killer of persons in the United States. In a study conducted in 2010, it was reported that lung cancer was the #1 most fatal form of cancer, killing 26% of women diagnosed with it and 29% of men diagnosed with it. Prostate cancer kills 11% of men diagnosed with it and breast cancer kills 19% of women diagnosed with it. Colon cancer kills 9% of people diagnosed with it regardless of their gender.
Facing cancer facts & statistics is difficult. These numbers represent a tough truth about the ravages of cancer in the United States. If you are reading this right now, you probably know of several if not dozens of cancer cases. Even so, seeing the hard and scary truths about cancer in black and white is hard to take. If anything though, it should strengthen our resolve to support cancer research into the future in the hopes of ending the nightmare of this terrible disease.