U.S. Cancer Rates Keep Falling; Biggest Decline Among Hispanic, Black Men



A new report from the American Cancer Society indicates that cancer death rates are continuing to fall, dropping by 1.8% per year in men and 1.6% per year in women between 2004 and 2008, thanks to advances in cancer screening and treatment, Reuters reports. While the rate of decline is small, experts say, it is significant because it has continued to fall each year in the past 10. Cancer death rates among Hispanic men (2.3%) and black men (2.4%) had the biggest declines. But the news is not all good. According to the Reuters report: Despite improvements in the most common cancers, a companion report found an increase in cases of several cancers over the past decade, Reuters. These included cancers of the pancreas, liver, thyroid, and kidney and melanoma, as well as esophageal cancer ...

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Study: Latinas Get More Unneeded Breast Cancer Surgery



Latinas and older, poorer women all are more likely to have lymph nodes under the armpit removed unnecessarily during breast cancer surgery, according to a new study, Reuters reports. That's despite 2005 guidelines recommending a gentler surgery that spares most of the lymph nodes, avoiding side effects like pain, swelling and numbness down the line. Based on a California cancer registry, researchers found that more than a third of about 18,000 women who had undergone mastectomy for early-stage breast cancer had had their lymph nodes removed as well. Yet all of these women had node-negative tumors, meaning the cancer had not spread beyond the ...

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Colon Cancer Testing Lags in Latinos with Family History



In a telephone survey, Latinos were found to be less likely than whites to get screened for colon cancer, and much less likely when both groups had a family history of the disease, Reuters reports. However, the study results did not show an ethnic difference in which women had recently been screened for breast cancer, whether or not it was in their families. According to the news report: Researchers didn't know why each person in the study had or hadn't gotten screened. But they proposed a few reasons why Latinos might not get their regular colon cancer check-ups, including communication problems with doctors and fear and anxiety about being screened. "It seems very plausible that this is not happening for Latinos because of access barriers and language barriers," said Heather Orom, who ...

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Darker skin doesn’t mean melanoma immunity



Melanoma is on the rise among certain groups of dark-skinned Floridians, new research shows, Reuters reports. The study isn't sure why but does provide an important main message: "Just because you have darker skin pigmentation, whether you're Hispanic or black, does not make you immune to skin cancer," Dr. Robert S. Kirsner of the University of Miami told Reuters Health. Melanoma remains much rarer among blacks and Hispanics than among whites, which helps explain why public health efforts to prevent melanoma chiefly target the light-skinned. In the current study, for example, in 2004 there were about 26 cases of melanoma diagnosed for every 100,000 persons per year among U.S. whites, compared to 4 cases for Hispanics and less than 1 case for non-Hispanic blacks. Nevertheless, ...

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