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CNN Live Today

Cancer Deaths Drop

Aired May 14, 2002 - 12:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The nation's rate of cancer deaths declined steadily over the past 10 years, and that news will be contained in a report due out tomorrow. But the same study finds that the rate of cancer cases has remained about the same. That is raising concern with an aging population.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta here to tell us what this all means -- good afternoon.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well the numbers -- good afternoon, Bill -- good to see you.

HEMMER: Good to see you, too.

GUPTA: The numbers can be a little startling, no question about it. When you sit down and look at all the various numbers and you think about the fact that they've been studying -- looking at some of these trends now over 30 years -- looking at the rates of breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and they're seeing that a lot of numbers are sort of startling in terms of what's happening. The number of diagnoses are increasing, but the number of deaths are decreasing.

You can see here, in fact, Bill, over the next 50 years, the number of diagnoses are expected to double from 1.3 million now to about 2.6 million 50 years from now, so doubling those numbers. At the same time, we're seeing the number of deaths actually decreasing about a percent per year. So diagnoses are increasing, deaths are decreasing. And that's sort of the big headline out of this.

HEMMER: One would think that the data could be somewhat conflicting. You would think that they would counter one another.

GUPTA: That's right. And in a way, if you look at that, that very aspect of it, it's good news. Because what it means is that we're finding cancers earlier. That's why the number of diagnoses are going up. Our imaging techniques have improved.

Also, it's not entirely unexpected that the number of diagnoses would increase as our population ages. Certainly age is one of the biggest risk factors for cancer. So if you live long enough, you're more likely to get cancer. But at the same time, Bill, the good news is, despite the fact that the diagnoses have gone up, the number of deaths have continued to decrease. So we're treating these successfully.

HEMMER: You mentioned a few types of cancer, one of them being lung cancer. Is that still the number one killer?

GUPTA: It absolutely is. Lung cancer is a big problem; a quarter of all cancer deaths amongst men, and a third amongst all women. A lot of women don't realize that, but that is a big killer amongst women as well.

And I think, Bill, the most important thing to remember about that is that is also -- despite being the number one cancer killer -- is also one of the most preventable killers. Smoking, certainly being the leading cause.

HEMMER: And we mentioned tomorrow the study is going to be out officially. Is it going to cause some ripples, or what is your sense of that?

GUPTA: Well I think that what the National Cancer Institute and a lot of the scientists are saying is, listen, we're going to have a lot of cancers out there pretty soon; they're going to double. We need to be putting a lot of money into research and a lot of money into treatment and diagnosis of these cancers so that we can keep up with this huge cancer burden that's about to hit us.

HEMMER: Got it -- thank you, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Good to see you.

HEMMER: Good to see you as always, my friend, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

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