Mortality Rate= (Deaths/population) x 100,000

Question: How are the rates of certain cancers changing over a 10-year span, and are
they improving?

2005
Type of Total Number Number of Number of Number of Number of Number of Number of
Cancer number of of cases Diagnosed diagnosed Deaths for deaths for survivors survivors
all cancer per both men women men women for men for women
cases genders

Lung 1,372,910 172,570 93,010 79,560 90,490 73,020 2,520 6,540

Cancer (13% of all (12% of all (97% (92% (3% (3%
male female death of death of survival of survival of
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) women) men) women)

Colon & 1,372,910 145,290 71,820 73,470 28,540 27,750 43,280 45,720
rectum (10% of all (11% of all (40% (38% (60% (62%
Cancer male female death of death of survival of survival of
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) women) men) women)

Melanoma 1,372,910 59,580 33,580 26,000 4,910 2,860 28,670 23,140

of Skin (5% of all (4% of all (14% (11% (84% (89%
male female death of death of survival of survival of
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) women) men) women)

Leukemia 1,372,910 34,810 19,640 15,170 12,540 10,030 7,100 5,140

(3%of all (2% of all (64% (66% (36% (34%
male female death of death of survival of survival of
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) women) men) women)

2015
Type of Total Number Number of Number of Number of Number of Number of Number of
Cancer Number of of cases diagnosed diagnosed deaths for deaths for survivors survivors
cancer per both men women men women for men for women
cases genders

Lung 1,658,370 221,200 115,610 105,590 86,380 71,660 29,230 30,930

Cancer (14% of all (13% of all (75% (68% (25% (32%
male female death of death of survival of survival of
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) women) men) women)

Colon & 1,658,370 132,700 69,090 63,610 26,100 23,600 42,990 40,010
Rectum (8% of all (8% of all (38% (37% (62% (63% of
Cancer male female death of death of survival of diagnosed
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed women)
men) women) men)

Melanoma 1,658,370 73,870 42,670 31,200 6,640 3,300 36,030 27,900

of skin (5% of all (5% of all (16% (11% of all (84% (89%
male female death of female) survival of survival of
cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) men) women)

Leukemia 1,658,370 54,270 30,900 23,370 14,210 10,240 20,660 16,690

(4% of all (3% of all (46% (44% (54% (56%
male female death of death of survival of survival of
 cancers) cancers) diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed diagnosed
men) women) men) women)

Analysis:
The question is,” How are the rates of certain cancers changing over a 10-year span, and
are they improving?” I will start by answering that question for lung cancer. Lung cancer had the
highest number of cases in 2005 and 2015. In 2005 it had roughly 172,570 total cases for both
genders. 10 years after that cases had increase to 221,200 which is about a 128% increase in
cases, but if you look at the number of people that died in 2005 to 2015 you can see by
subtracting the percentages of deaths that lung cancer had dropped by 22% for men and 24% for
women. Also the survival rates also increased over the 10 years. That percentage is quite
significant so we can say that more people are surviving lung cancer than they were before and
that the survival rate is improving. This also shows an improvement in cancer study because lung
cancer has the highest number of cases out of all other cancer so such significant numbers show
improvement.
Moving on to the next cancer, which is Colon and Rectal Cancer. The first thing is that
the number of cases decreased by 2% for men and 3% for women which is about 2,000 cases for
men and 10,000 cases for women. So that shows some improvement in the number of people with
cancer. Looking at the survival rate, the survival rate hasn’t changed by much but survival for
men increased by 2% and 1% for women. That is about 6,000 total lives for both genders that
were saved. So we can conclude that the survival rate for colon and rectal cancer is slowly
improving over the 10 year time period. This is also significant since colon and rectal cancer is a
large percentage of cancers.
The next one that I collected data for was Melanoma. Unfortunately the total number of
cases increased by about 13,000 cases. We can also see that the mortality rate of people affected
with melanoma is increasing which isn’t a sign of improvement. The percentages didn’t change
due to the reason that the ratio between cases to deaths increased at the same rate so the
comparison of percent isn’t valid for this case. We can still see that about 7,000 more men died in
2015 than in 2005 and 7,000 more women died in 2015 than 2005. We can conclude that
melanoma hasn’t improved the survival rate and the cases from 2005 to 2015
Lastly Leukemia an increase in the number of cases from 2005 to 2015. It went from
34,810 to 54,270, which is about a 156% increase in cases. This cancer had a different trend
compared to the others though. When you look at leukemia’s death rate, you can see that the
number people that died in 2005 and 2015 are almost the same for women and 2,000 more deaths
in 2015 for men. The part that draws your interest is that the number of survivors in 2005 was
7,100 for men; while in 2015 the male survivors were 20,660 which is a 290% increase in
survivors. For women, there were 5,400 survivors in 2005 and 16,690 survivors in 2015. That is
309% increase in survivors. We can see that rates for leukemia also improved significantly which
shows some improvement in cancer study.
In conclusion we can say that lung cancer, colon and rectum cancer, and leukemia had
improved rates while melanoma didn’t improve over the 10 year span.