(NewsNation) — The number of cancer cases is expected to cross the two million mark in 2024 — the first time — according to estimates by the American Cancer Society.
Just over 2 million new cancer cases are projected from 2024 as more than 611,000 deaths occurred last year, according to the American Cancer Society’s yearly report, published Friday in its medical journal “CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.”
That equates to 5,500 daily cancer diagnoses, as cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. overall.
Although total cancer rates and death counts are down, the cancer incidence rates for common types are rising. Cancer incidence is the number of new cases per year, usually at a rate per 100,000 people, whereas the number of cancer cases is the total number in a population.
“Rising diagnoses of six of the most common cancers (breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, kidney, and melanoma) threaten that longstanding downward trend,” the report said.
Experts attribute the overall decline to reductions in smoking, earlier detection, and improved treatment options.
Rising cases in younger people, women
For a long time, cancer risk increased with age and was more likely to develop in people older than 65. Now, more people between the ages of 50 and 64 are being diagnosed.
And for people younger than 50: “Especially notable is the rise in colorectal cancer diagnoses among people younger than 50,” the study says.
“In the late 1990s, colorectal cancer was the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in this age group, and now, it is the first cause of cancer death in men younger than 50 and the second cause in women that age.”
Women are facing an increase in cases, particularly with cervical cancer in women 30 to 44 years old and liver cancer, while racial disparities in diagnoses persist.
Because it takes years to compile data, researchers still need to analyze how the pandemic affected cancer statistics.
“Researchers expect that the public health crisis of COVID-19 will be found to have delayed diagnoses and led to worse outcomes and more deaths,” researchers said. “But it will take many years to parse out those effects.”