Cancer News: The Surprising Reason for the Decline in Cancer Mortality

The Surprising Reason for the Decline in Cancer Mortality

Behavioral changes and screenings may be just as important as treatments, if not more so.

By Derek Thompson

Last year, I called America a “rich death trap.” Americans are more likely to die than Europeans or other citizens of similarly rich nations at just about every given age and income level. Guns, drugs, and cars account for much of the difference, but record-high health-care spending hasn’t bought much safety from the ravages of common pathogens. Whereas most of the developed world saw its mortality rates improve in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, more Americans died of COVID after the introduction of the vaccines than before.

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WORK IN PROGRESS

The Surprising Reason for the Decline in Cancer Mortality

Behavioral changes and screenings may be just as important as treatments, if not more so.

By Derek Thompson

Corinna Kern / laif / Redux

JANUARY 15, 2023, 6 AM ET

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Last year, I called America a “rich death trap.” Americans are more likely to die than Europeans or other citizens of similarly rich nations at just about every given age and income level. Guns, drugs, and cars account for much of the difference, but record-high health-care spending hasn’t bought much safety from the ravages of common pathogens. Whereas most of the developed world saw its mortality rates improve in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, more Americans died of COVID after the introduction of the vaccines than before.

But this week, America finally got some good news in the all-important category of keeping its citizens alive. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. cancer-mortality rate has fallen by one-third, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.