NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – While pancreatic cancer mortality is still higher among blacks than whites in the US, rates are decreasing among blacks and increasing among whites, a new study shows.
“Whites and blacks experienced opposite trends in pancreatic cancer death rates between 1970 and 2009 that are largely unexplainable by known risk factors,” the researchers comment. “This study underscores the needs for urgent action to curb the increasing trends of pancreatic cancer in whites and for better understanding of the etiology of this disease.”
Lead author Dr. Jiemin Ma, with the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues analyzed trends in pancreatic cancer death rates between 1970 and 2009 by race and sex, using data from the National Center for Health Statistics. The findings appear in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute online November 7.
Among black men, the pancreatic death rate increased between 1970 and 1989 from 29.0 to 31.3 per 100,000, and then declined to 27.5 per 100,000 by 2009. The pattern was similar in black women at those same time points: rising from 18.3 to 23.1and then dropping to 20.9 per 100,000.
In contrast, in white men, pancreatic cancer death rates per 100,000 decreased from 24.8 in 1970 to 20.4 in 1995, and then rose to 21.5 by 2009. The numbers per 100,000 white women were 14.6 in 1970, 15.3 in 1984, stable until 1998, then an increase to 15.9 in 2009.
The authors discuss several possible reasons for the changes in pancreatic cancer death rates, including changes in smoking habits and increasing obesity — but they do not have a definite explanation for the opposite trends in blacks and whites.
Still, they conclude, “Based on current knowledge, smoking cessation and body weight control would be the two key intervention measures. A better understanding of the etiology of pancreatic cancer would help formulate more effective measures to curb the foreseeable increases in pancreatic cancer burden.”
The authors of a related editorial write, “The article by Ma et al. in this issue of the Journal highlights a looming crisis of rising pancreatic cancer death rates in the United States.”
Drs. Dana B. Cardin and Jordan D. Berlin, at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, continue: “To answer this concern, the NCI (National Cancer Institute) has prioritized pancreatic cancer research. However, the funding available to the NCI continues to decline in the face of sequestration and a government focused on partisan bickering and political showmanship. Our country needs to act now, or we will simply be spectators as thousands more people die each year from this devastating illness.”
SOURCE: Pancreatic Cancer Death Rates by Race Among US Men and Women, 1970–2009
SOURCE: Pancreas Cancer on the Rise: Are We Up to the Challenge?
