In the same reports about a decline in the cancer death rate in the United States, the American Cancer Society described other news as “bleak.” The New York Times noted that the seemingly good news came with an “asterisk.”
While fewer people were dying from the disease characterized by the uncontrolled growth of cells, doctors in 2024 were expected to diagnose more people than ever with the potentially lethal disease – 2,001,140 to be exact.
That was the bleak information that demanded an asterisk. But a closer read of death and case projections that the American Cancer Society compiles annually reveals explanations for those caveats and offers insights about actionable life-saving prevention.
Specifically, the American Cancer Society attributed the continued decline in the cancer death rate to “big wins in smoking cessation, early cancer detection and treatment advancements,” the report stated.
In fact, between 1965 and 2022, long term smoking rates in adults dropped 73%, the American Lung Association reports. Early detection of cancer can improve the chance of surviving the disease because physicians can assess and treat cancer before it has had more time to spread and affect other systems and organs.
That said, early detection, along with more sensitive cancer screening tools, is one of the factors that could have affected the projected increase in cancer cases. Looking for something more frequently and more effectively increases the probability of finding it.
Doctors have theorized that the expected increase in cancer cases could be tied to more obesity in the United States. Modifying lifestyle and diet have been shown to reduce cancer risk.
Along with selecting healthier foods and exercising more, remaining aware of updated recommendations for when and how often to schedule cancer screenings is critical for achieving and maintaining good health.
Screening entails undergoing cancer detection examinations before symptoms of disease occur. Disease and medical professionals have updated guidelines about when and if people should get screened for lung, prostate, cervical and colon cancers.
For some groups of people, they recommend consulting with doctors to determine skipping certain screenings. Some detection tests, such as prostate cancer screenings, can lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary and painful treatments.
Although there have been changes in recommendations for type and frequency of screenings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society both recommend making screenings for the following diseases essential components of your health plan:
Breast Cancer
Women age 40 to 74 should get a mammogram every two years, according to the United States Preventive Services Task Force, if they have an average risk of developing breast cancer.
For screening purposes only, the American Cancer Society says a woman has an “average risk” of developing breast cancer if “she doesn’t have a personal history of breast cancer, a strong family history of breast cancer, or a genetic mutation known to increase risk of breast cancer (such as in a BRCA gene), and has not had chest radiation therapy before the age of 30.”
Women with a high risk of breast cancer should have a mammogram and breast MRI every year, the American Cancer Society recommends. Women in the “high risk” category have:
- not undergone genetic testing, but have a parent, sibling or child with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation
- received radiation therapy before the age of 30 on their chest
- siblings, parents or children with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Cowden syndrome, or Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome or have those conditions themselves
Women who have dense breasts or a personal history of breast cancer should seek the advice of their physicians about the frequency of mammograms and the necessity of breast MRI as the American Cancer Society stated it lacks sufficient evidence to make recommendations for those two circumstances.
Men have breast tissue, and that means they can develop breast cancer. It’s rare, the CDC reports men represent about 1% of breast cancer cases, but it can and does happen.
Some of the factors that increase the risk for males developing breast cancer are being obese, being older than 50,BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, having liver disease or a close family member who had breast cancer.
Symptoms of breast cancer in men include nipple discharge, swelling or a lump in the breast, breast skin that’s red or flaky, dimpling or irritation of breast skin or pain or recession in the nipple or near it. The CDC recommends seeing a doctor immediately if those symptoms occur.
Cervical Cancer
The CDC and the American Cancer Society differ on when to start checking the cervix for abnormal cells and the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that has some strains linked to the development of cancer.
The CDC recommends starting Pap tests, the screening that detects abnormal cells at age 21. For people who have not had a previous diagnosis of cervical cancer or pre-cervical cancer, the American Cancer Society recommends starting Pap tests at age 25.
Between the ages of 30 and 65, the CDC recommends seeking a doctor’s guidance on whether to test only for HPV, only for cervical cancer or both. Under certain conditions, a doctor might determine that neither test is necessary after age 65, according to the CDC.
The American Cancer Society states “those over age 65 who have had regular screening in the past 10 years with normal results and no history of CIN2 or more serious diagnosis within the past 25 years should stop cervical cancer screening. Once stopped, it should not be started again.”
Colon and Rectal Cancer
Abnormal, precancerous growths in the rectum or colon, called polyps, frequently develop into cancer. But undergoing a colonoscopy can locate and remove polyps before cancer can develop.
Until 2021, 50 was the age to start colonoscopies. But an increase of cases in younger people led the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to drop the age to 45, and now a group of Yale Medicine surgeons are imploring people in their 20s and 30s to pay attention to their bowel movements.
In 2020 they diagnosed an 18-year-old patient in their clinic with colorectal cancer, according to a 2024 article about the physicians. They are encouraging 20- and 30-year-olds to be vigilant about sudden bowel changes, constipation and rectal bleeding, which one dad in his 30s dismissed as hemorrhoids. It wasn’t.
While the latest guidance recommends starting colonoscopies at 45 for people with average risks for developing the disease, it’s important to discuss changes in bowel activity with a physician and consider family history.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends getting a colonoscopy at the age that is 10 years younger than the age at which a close family member was diagnosed with colon cancer. So if a parent or sibling had a cancer diagnosis at 33, close relatives should have a colonoscopy at age 23.
Lung Cancer
The frequency for lung cancer screening depends heavily on tobacco usage. Two of the three guidelines for when the CDC recommends checking for lung cancer relate to tobacco.
All people have breasts and a colon which makes a specific age a primary determinant for when screening should start for people with low or average risk of developing cancers in those body parts.
However, the CDC states lung cancer screening should be only for “adults who are at high risk for developing the disease because of their smoking history and age.” And that age is 50, well beyond the 21 years for cervical cancer, 40 for breast and older than the 45 for colon and rectal.
It’s important to understand the definition of a “pack year” to help determine if risk for lung cancer is high. According to the CDC, “a pack-year is smoking an average of one pack of cigarettes per day for one year. For example, a person could have a 20 pack-year history by smoking one pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years.”
So, lung cancer screenings are for people who are between 50 and 80, currently smoke or quit within the last 15 years and who have a 20-pack year smoking history or more.
During annual checkups with physicians, inquire about updated guidelines for cancer screenings that can result from health professions making data-led revisions. Remaining current on early detection protocols can potentially provide vital time to seek treatment and influence prognosis.
