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Cancer death rates decline yet new diagnoses spike for some groups, says report
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A major annual cancer report has revealed a mix of good news and points of concern.
Cancer diagnoses are expected to exceed two million in 2025, with approximately 618,120 deaths predicted, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual cancer trends report, which was published today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
ACS researchers compiled data from central cancer registries and from the National Center for Health Statistics.
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While mortality rates have declined, certain groups are seeing a spike in diagnoses, the report noted.
Cancer diagnoses are expected to exceed two million in 2025, with approximately 618,120 deaths predicted. (iStock)
“Continued reductions in cancer mortality because of drops in smoking, better treatment and earlier detection is certainly great news,” said lead author Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the ACS in Georgia, in a press release.
“However, this progress is tempered by rising incidences in young and middle-aged women, who are often the family caregivers, and a shifting cancer burden from men to women, harkening back to the early 1900s, when cancer was more common in women.”
Overall decline in death rates
Cancer death rates dropped 34% between 1991 and 2022, according to the ACS report.
That equates to approximately 4.5 million deaths avoided due to early detection, reductions in smoking, and improvements in treatment, the report stated.
Cancer death rates dropped 34% between 1991 and 2022.
Several factors likely contributed to this decline, noted John D. Carpten, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at City of Hope, a national cancer research and treatment organization in California.
“I think a big one is smoking cessation and the battle against lung cancer, which has always been the most common form of cancer and is tied to tobacco use,” Carpten told Fox News Digital in an on-camera interview.
“Screening programs are a critical component of early detection, and expanding access to these services will save countless lives.” (iStock)
“But without a doubt, I think new and better methods for early detection, and screening for colorectal cancer and other forms of the disease, have also allowed us to see a decrease.”
Lifestyle improvements have also helped to decrease mortality, he said, along with the development of new and better therapies for cancer.
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Despite overall declines in mortality, the report revealed that death rates are rising for cancers of the oral cavity, pancreas, uterine corpus and liver (for females).
Some common cancers have also seen an increase in diagnoses, including breast (female), prostate, pancreatic, uterine corpus, melanoma (female), liver (female) and oral cancers associated with the human papillomavirus, the report stated.
Increased diagnoses among certain groups
Diagnoses for many cancer types are increasing among certain groups.
Cancer rates for women 50 to 64 years of age have surpassed those for men, the report revealed. For women under 50, rates are 82% higher than males in that age group.
The report revealed that diagnoses of colorectal cancer in men and women under 65 and cervical cancer in women between 30 and 44 years of age has increased. (iStock)
As far as what is influencing the “disconcerting trend” in women’s cancers, Carpten said it is likely “highly nuanced” and will require additional research.
“The decrease in fertility and increases in obesity that we’ve seen are risk factors for breast cancer, especially in postmenopausal middle-aged women,” he said.
“But there could be other modifiable risk factors at play, like alcohol and physical activity.”
Cancer rates for women 50 to 64 years of age have surpassed those for men.
Another trend in the increase in early cancers is occurring in individuals under the age of 50, Carpten noted.
In particular, the report revealed that diagnoses of colorectal cancer in men and women under 65 and cervical cancer in women between 30 and 44 years of age has increased.
Some common cancers have also seen an increase in diagnoses, including breast (female), prostate, pancreatic, uterine corpus, melanoma (female), liver (female) and oral cancers associated with the human papillomavirus. (iStock)
The report also discusses inequities in cancer rates among certain ethnic groups, with Native American and Black people experiencing higher diagnoses of some cancer types.
“Progress against cancer continues to be hampered by striking, wide static disparities for many racial and ethnic groups,” said senior author Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, senior vice president of surveillance and health equity science at the ACS, in the release.
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The report shows mixed trends for children, with diagnoses declining in recent years for patients 14 years of age and younger, but rising for adolescents between 15 and 19.
“Mortality rates have dropped by 70% in children and by 63% in adolescents since 1970, largely because of improved treatment for leukemia,” the ACS stated in the release.
Pancreatic cancer a growing concern
The ACS report also warns about “lagging progress” against pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
The ACS report also warns about “lagging progress” against pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. (iStock)
Rates of diagnoses and deaths from the disease type are on the rise.
“Pancreatic is an incredibly deadly form of cancer,” Carpten said.
One of the main issues with pancreatic cancer, he said, is that it sometimes can grow in an individual for up to 10 years before it’s detected.
“If we can identify those cancers when they’re at at a curable stage, we can improve outcomes.”
One of the best opportunities for beating pancreatic cancer is early detection, Carpten said.
“By the time those cancers have advanced, they’ve spread to the liver or other organs, and they’re almost impossible to cure at that stage,” he said.
“If we can identify those cancers when they’re at a curable stage, we can improve outcomes.”
‘It takes a village’
Making progress in fighting cancer “takes a village,” Carpten told Fox News Digital.
“It will require partnerships between the community, the health care system, cancer researchers, government, industry — we all have to work together if we want to continue to see a decrease and an ultimate increase in cures,” he said.
“We all have to work together if we want to continue to see a decrease and an ultimate increase in cures,” a cancer researcher said. (iStock)
Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, interim chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), stated that the report highlights the need to “increase investment in both cancer treatment and care, including equitable screening programs.”
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“Screening programs are a critical component of early detection, and expanding access to these services will save countless lives,” he said in the release.
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“We also must address these shifts in cancer incidence, mainly among women. A concerted effort between health care providers, policymakers and communities needs to be prioritized to assess where and why mortality rates are rising.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the ACS for further comment.
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A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart. Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026. (SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion… My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
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She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform. He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006. He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life. (SWNS)
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said. After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions. She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son. (SWNS)
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.”
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Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.” (iStock)
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.’”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found. (iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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