Cancer in 2023 Research: Driving Progress Against Cancer Research is the backbone of progress against cancer because it is the driving force behind every breakthrough that enhances survival and quality of life and every new policy or program designed to improve public health. Discoveries across the major areas of cancer research, including basic, clinical, translational, and population sciences, provide the foundation for advances in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Every clinical advance as well as every policy that spurs progress against cancer is the culmination of a complex process that requires collaboration over the course of many years among numerous different stakeholders committed to fundamentally changing the face of this devastating disease (see Sidebar 1, p. 13). The remarkable advances being made against cancer—in particular, improvements in prevention, early detection, and treatment—are resulting in a steady decline in U.S. cancer death rates year after year. In fact, the age-adjusted overall cancer death rate has fallen by 33 percent between 1991 and 2020, a reduction that translates into averting an estimated 3.8 million deaths from cancer (2). The reduction in overall U.S. cancer mortality rate is driven largely by the decline in lung cancer death rate, the pace of which has accelerated in recent years because of reduction in smoking and advances in early detection and treatment (see Figure 1, p. 14). Reduction in death rates for melanoma, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and female breast cancer has also contributed to overall progress against U.S. cancer mortality (2). Research-driven advances in treatment are reflected in the steady declines in death rates for melanoma, leukemia, and kidney cancer (2). The death rate for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, for instance, has declined by 70 percent between 1975 and 2020 (5). This progress can be attributed to groundbreaking basic research discoveries from the 1960s through 1980s that identified the mechanistic underpinnings of the disease and propelled the development of a cascade of new treatments for CML (see Sidebar 6, p. 28) (6). IN THIS SECTION, YOU WILL LEARN: ⚫ In the United States, the overall cancer death rate has been steadily declining since the 1990s, with the reductions between 1991 and 2020 translating into more than 3.8 million cancer deaths avoided. ⚫ The decline in overall U.S. cancer death rates is driven by steady declines in mortality from cancers of the breast, colon and rectum, lung, and prostate. ⚫ More than 18 million cancer survivors were living in the United States as of January 1, 2022. ⚫ Progress has not been uniform against all cancer types or all subtypes and stages of a given cancer type. ⚫ There are stark inequities in the cancer burden among many sociodemographic groups within the United States; these inequities occur across the cancer continuum and are driven largely by social factors. ⚫ The economic burden of cancer both on individuals and the U.S. health care system is expected to rise in the coming decades, highlighting the urgent need for more research to accelerate the pace of progress against cancer. Source: (3). 1989 2020 Reduction In Breast Cancer Death Rate 43% 460K FEWER CANCER DEATHS AACR Cancer Progress Report 2023 Cancer in 2023 12
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