US Cancer Rate Falling?

Over the last decade, advances in medical research have slowed the progress of cancer, and we are now seeing lower death rates than before. Although incidence rates did increase slightly from 2004-2008, death rates fell by 1.3%, representing the hard work and investment in the fight against cancer. The major concern at this point, particularly in first world countries with decreasing physical activities, is the cancers and other diseases associated with obesity and lack of physical action. Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, MD, warns that if obesity continues at the current trend, we might see the progress halted or even reversed despite efforts to control cancer rates. Fortunately, most of these are controllable with a healthy diet and daily physical activity, which also increases survival rates in a majority of other diseases compared to an unhealthy patient.