Cancer Prevention Month

 

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics predicts 1,958,310 new cancer diagnoses and 609,820 cancer deaths will occur in the U.S. this year. However, this grim statistic is accompanied by some good news: Cancer death rates have dropped steadily for the last three decades:

The cancer mortality rate has decreased continuously since 1991, resulting in an overall drop of 33% and approximately 3.8 million cancer deaths averted.

 

Americans have heard the call to make better lifestyle choices (less tobacco, for example) and get recommended cancer screenings earlier rather than later.. or not at all. And doctors have gotten better at treating cancer:

This steady progress is because of reductions in smoking; uptake of screening for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers; and improvements in treatment, such as adjuvant chemotherapies for colon and breast cancers. More recently, advances in the development of targeted treatment and immunotherapy have accelerated progress in lung cancer mortality […] and are reflected in large mortality reductions for cancers with increasing or stable incidence (leukemia, melanoma, and kidney cancer). Treatment breakthroughs have particularly improved the management of some difficult-to-treat cancers, such as nonsmall cell lung cancer and metastatic melanoma.

 

For some types of cancer, the number of new cases has declined in recent years. Fewer smokers has led to a reduction in the incidence of lung cancer, and the HPV vaccine is credited for a dramatic drop in cervical cancer diagnoses. Other cancer types, unfortunately, are on the rise:

Of concern are rising incidence for breast, prostate, and uterine corpus cancers, all of which have a wide racial disparity in mortality and are amenable to early detection.

 

Even though cancer incidence hasn’t gone down in children, dying from cancer has:

The overall cancer incidence rate stabilized in children during 2010 through 2019 after increasing since at least 1975, but continued to rise in adolescents by 1% per year. In contrast, death rates per 100,000 persons declined from 1970 through 2020 continuously[…]. Much of this progress reflects the dramatic declines in mortality for leukemia of 84% in children and 75% in adolescents. Remission rates of 90%–100% have been achieved for childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia over the past 4 decades, primarily through the optimization of established chemotherapeutic regimens as opposed to the development of new therapies.

 

February is National Cancer Prevention Month. The Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) reminds parents of the steps they can take to reduce their children’s risk of developing environmentally sensitive cancers:

Did you know that cancer is the leading cause of disease-related childhood death in the US? There has been a 41% increase in childhood cancer incidence since 1975. Leading experts agree that toxic chemicals where kids live, learn and play are important risk factors for cancer, especially exposure to pesticides, traffic-related air pollution, and paints/solvents. Mark this important month by taking a few simple steps to reduce the harmful chemicals in your environment that are linked to childhood cancers.

Pesticides:

• Choose Organic produce when possible.

• Reduce or eliminate pesticide use in your yard and inside your home

• Advocate for reduced pesticide use at school, child care, and local parks.

• Choose safer cleaning products and follow eco-healthy best practices when sanitizing and disinfecting.

Paint:

• Use “no-VOC” or “low-VOC” paints.

• Look for alkylphenol ethoxylate (APE) free paints.

• Avoid “anti-fungal” and “anti-microbial” paints.

Traffic Related Air Pollution:

• Don’t idle your car around children or places they spend time.

• Maintain a working HVAC system.

• Distance play areas from traffic.

• Check the local air quality index daily [at airnow.gov].

 

Learn more about reducing cancer risk from the Cancer & Environment Network of Southwestern Pennsylvania (CENSWPA)* here and on The PediaBlog here.

 

*Dr. Ketyer is a member of CENSWPA’s leadership team and chair of the Education and Outreach Workgroup.

 

(Google Images)

 

source https://www.thepediablog.com/2023/02/28/cancer-prevention-month/