By Frank Greve, McClatchy Newspapers, October 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - Declines in U.S. cancer death rates are accelerating, federal health agencies and the American Cancer Society reported today.

Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said the trend "demonstrates important progress" in fighting cancer.

The drop in cancer death rates has nearly doubled in recent years, dropping by an average of 2.1 percent per year, analysts said. Moreover, given the current trends in cancer control, "we should expect to see continuing declines," said David Espey, a physician at the CDC''s Cancer Prevention and Control division and a co-author of the study.

Added Dr. Richard L. Schilsky, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, "Every 1 percent is 5,000 people who aren''t dying." That''s a huge sense of progress at this point."

Cancer death rates are the best measure of progress against the second-leading killer of Americans, after heart disease. The new assessment found the greatest gains against four leading killers: colorectal cancer in men and women, prostate cancer in men, breast cancer in women and lung cancer in men.

Missouri''s progress in tackling lung cancers lags behind the national statistics for both men and women, said Dr. Graham Colditz, associate director of prevention and control at the Siteman Cancer Institute at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He cited the most recent state statistics from the Centers for Disease Control. The national report did not provide state-by-state breakdowns but included information from the CDC.

According to the American Cancer Society, death rates for men declined for 12 of the 15 most common causes of cancer: lung, prostate, colon and rectal, pancreatic, bladder, kidney, stomach, brain, oral cavity, leukemia, non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma and myeloma. Death rates for esophageal and liver cancers were up.

For women, death rates declined for 10 of the 15 most common cancers: breast, colon and rectal, stomach, kidney, cervical, brain, bladder, non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma. Flat were rates for pancreatic, ovarian and uterine. Up: liver and lung.

Missouri''s rate of lung cancer for men is 103 per 100,000, 25 percent higher than the national rate, according to 2003 statistics cited by Colditz. The death rate here also is higher than the national rate.

The same pattern shows up locally for lung cancers among women.

"It really highlights the effects of smoking," Colditz said.

He says the state lags behind many others in reducing tobacco use. Illinois reflects the national trends more closely than Missouri, he said. But among women, breast cancer is slightly higher than the national figures provided in the annual report.

The study is based on cases of cancer reported by cancer registries nationwide and deaths due to cancer submitted by doctors on death certificates compiled by state vital statistics offices. Preliminary data for 2005 aren''t expected until January.

Among new cancer diagnoses, breast cancer showed the sharpest recent drop nationally, according to the cancer society''s report. Espey attributes it mainly to a fall-off in women''s use of hormone replacement drugs after researchers linked such treatments to increases in breast and ovarian cancer.

Overall, early detection and improved treatments helped, especially in the prevention of colorectal cancer through screening and removal of precancerous polyps.

Aisha Sultan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.