[WSJ] The cancer death rate in the U.S. dropped 2.2% from 2016 to 2017, the largest single-year drop ever recorded, according to the latest report from the American Cancer Society, continuing a longstanding decline that began a quarter-century ago.
The drop is largely driven by progress against lung cancer, though the most rapid declines in the report occurred in melanoma. Advances in treatment are helping improve survival rates in the two cancers, experts say.
Falling smoking rates have played a big role in the decline in lung-cancer deaths, cancer doctors say, as well as improvements in detection and treatment. For melanoma, the report singles out the emergence of drugs like Roche Holding AG ’s Zelboraf that target the molecular roots of tumors and therapies like Yervoy from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which enlist a patient’s own immune system in the cancer fight.
Roche, Bristol and other drug makers have spent tens of billions of dollars in recent years developing new therapies such as Zelboraf, Yervoy and new generations of the treatments. The $123 billion world-wide cancer drugs market is among the industry’s biggest and fastest growing, which has prompted companies to double down on their research and promises even more agents that could make a dent against tumors.
"Our work with personalized medicines, such as Zelboraf, deepens our understanding of the underlying biology of cancer," said a spokesperson for Genentech, one of the companies that developed Zelboraf and is owned by Roche. "We are continually building up this knowledge to help more people across many different types of cancer."
Despite the progress, cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease. And declines in colorectal, breast and prostate cancer deaths have slowed. The report, published Wednesday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, projects 1.8 million new cancer cases and 600,000 cancer deaths in the U.S. in 2020.
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