Overall Cancer Mortality Declines Except for Prostate Cancer

The American Cancer Society (ACS) today released Cancer Statistics, 2023, the organization's annual report on cancer facts and trends.

According to the new ACS report, overall cancer mortality has dropped 33% since 1991, averting an estimated 3.8 million cancer deaths.

Based on ACS data, in 2023, there are projected to be 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths in the U.S.

Prostate cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer death for men in the U.S., increased by 3% per year from 2014 through 2019 after two decades of decline.

Most concerning is that the diagnosis of advanced disease drove this increase.

Since 2011, the diagnosis of advanced-stage (regional- or distant-stage) prostate cancer has increased by 4% to 5% annually, and the proportion of men diagnosed with the distant-stage disease has doubled.

These findings underscore the importance of understanding and reducing this trend.

"The increasing percentage of men presenting with advanced prostate cancer, which is much more difficult to treat and often incurable, is highly discouraging," said Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, chief executive officer at the ACS, in a press release on January 12, 2023.

"In order to end cancer as we know it, for everyone, it is imperative for us to focus on cancers where trends for incidence and mortality are going in the wrong direction." 

These major findings were published today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, alongside its consumer-friendly companion, Cancer Facts & Figures 2023, available at https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics.html.