Lung cancer rates drop in US due to tobacco control

The rate of new lung cancer cases decreased among men and women in the United States from 2005 to 2009 as a result of tobacco control efforts, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday. The CDC drew the conclusion based on a study published in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study found that lung cancer incidence rates went down 2.6 percent per year among men, from 87 to 78 cases per 100,000 men and 1.1 percent per year among women, from 57 to 54 cases per 100,000 women. The fastest drop was among adults aged 35 to 44, decreasing 6.5 percent per year among men and 5.8 percent per year among women, the CDC said. Lung cancer incidence rates decreased more rapidly among men than among women in all age groups, it said. "These dramatic declines in the number of young adults with lung cancer show that tobacco prevention and control programs work- - when they are applied," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths and the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among both men and women in the United States. Most lung cancers are attributable to cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke, but in 2010, U.S. states appropriated only 2.4 percent of their tobacco revenues for tobacco control, the CDC said. Besides, because smoking behaviors among women are now similar to those among men, women are now experiencing the same risk of lung cancer as men, and among adults aged 35 to 44 years, men had slightly lower rates of lung cancer incidence than women, it said. "While it is encouraging that lung cancer incidence rates are dropping in the United States, one preventable cancer is one too many," Frieden said. "Implementation of tobacco control strategies is needed to reduce smoking prevalence and the lung cancer it causes among men and women." Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths and diseases in the United States. Millions of Americans are living with a smoking-related disease, and each day more than 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers, according to the CDC.