Colon cancer statistics

The American Cancer Society has released its annual report on cancer incidence, mortality, and survival rates. "Cancer Statistics, 2004" was published in the January/February 2004 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and is available online at: http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/full/54/1/8.

Approximately 1.37 million new cancer cases and 564,000 cancer-related deaths are expected in the United States in 2004. Incidence rates in men stabilized from 1995 through 2000, but rates in women continue to increase by 0.4 percent per year. Mortality rates in men have decreased by 1.5 percent per year since 1992, but rates in women have stabilized.

Cancer mortality rates continue to decrease from the three major cancer sites in men (i.e., lung and bronchus, colon and rectum, and prostate), and from breast and colorectal cancers in women.

Compared with white men and women, black men and women have 40 percent and 20 percent higher mortality rates, respectively, from all cancers combined. Cancer incidence and mortality rates are lower in other racial and ethnic groups than in whites and blacks for all sites combined. However, minority populations are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced-stage disease.