World Cancer Day 2024: History of Mammography, Recent Research, and Some Trends

Some resources and more will be coming

February 4 was World Cancer Day:

I delayed this post one day due to the death of Adele Groyer, who died from cancer.

U.S. Cancer Deaths During the Pandemic

Adele lived in the UK and was originally from South Africa, but not surprisingly, cancer is the top cause of death for those age 45-74 in the U.S. in 2022:

If broken out by sex, even at the height of the pandemic, cancer was the top killer of females in the U.S. for a wide range of ages.

Podcasts: Mammography History and the Society of Actuaries Research

Here are two recent podcast episodes relating to cancer:

History of Mammography

January 2024: Trends in Cancer Demographics - Society of Actuaries Research Insights

SOA Research: May 2019, Cancer Genomics

Recent article: Pre-pandemic trend shows increased incidence of cancer among younger adults

WSJ, 11 Jan 2024: Cancer Is Striking More Young People, and Doctors Are Alarmed and Baffled

Although cancer still strikes older people far more often than the young, the rise in early-onset cancers threatens to stall progress. One in five new colorectal cancer patients in 2019 was under 55, a near doubling since 1995. These younger patients are often diagnosed at late stages. Colorectal cancer death rates among patients over 65 are going down, but for those under 50 they are going up. 

Quick Trends: Cancer Mortality, Age-Adjusted Death Rates

This is just a quick graph from CDC Wonder (no spreadsheet for right now - I just pulled the data this morning).

There was a reversal in the cancer mortality improvement trend during the pandemic — mortality noticeably increased in 2021.

Preliminary results for 2022 show a reduction in cancer mortality, and the 2023 results are still incomplete, but already show an increase compared to 2022. We may have mixed results for a while.

I will be digging into these trends a little more later, by age groups, race/ethnicity, and cancer type (just a few of the top cancers) in future posts.