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Cancer is now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 85, surpassing deaths from heart disease for the first time, researchers said Wednesday.
The death rate from both diseases is declining, but the rate for heart disease is dropping faster, causing the relative change in positions.
In 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, 476,009 Americans under 85 died of cancer, compared to 450,637 who died of heart disease, according to the American Cancer Society's annual report issued Wednesday.
But when Americans 85 and over are factored in, heart disease retains its lead. They represent 1.6 percent of the population.
About 950,000 Americans will die of heart disease this year, compared to about 570,000 who will die of cancer. The overall death rate for heart disease is not expected to fall below that for cancer until about 2018, according to Dr. Harmon Eyre, the cancer society's chief medical officer.
Dr. Michael A. Friedman, CEO and president of the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., however, cautioned that "whether something is number one or two is really not important. What is really important is the terrible cost in productivity, lifestyle, relationships, comfort and all the important parameters of life. Those costs are all very, very high" for cancer and heart disease.
The cancer report found several areas of improvement. The death rate from lung cancer in women -- which first surpassed that for breast cancer in 1980 -- has apparently peaked at about 73,000 per year and may even be starting to decline, said epidemiologist Elizabeth Ward of the cancer society. The rate for men, currently about 90,500, peaked in 1989 and has been declining by about 1.9 percent per year since 1991.
The main difference in lung cancer rates between the sexes is that, while smoking has always been more common among men, they began to quit earlier. The incidence of smoking in men began to drop after the Surgeon General's 1964 report on the risks of tobacco, while that in women continued to grow for another 20 years.
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