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# Is it really cancer  death rates are on the decline?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/cancer_death_rates_0807100748/
- Published: 2010-07-08T19:39:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:14:17.000Z
- Description: Larry O'Brien argues that federal agencies and the American Cancer Society mislead people by reporting cancer deaths per 100,000, since NCHS figures show the actual number of cancer deaths has risen year after year since 1972, with 2003 and 2004 the only exceptions.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Disease, Health News, #vivvo-import

The hard fact to be noted is that there have been a higher number of deaths from cancer each and every year, excepting only 2003 and 2004, since the “War on Cancer” began nearly 40 years ago. The collaborating entities--NCI, CDC, the American Cancer Association, NCHS and others--have been reporting “results” in terms of the "rate of deaths per 100,000" then claiming a decline in the number of deaths when in fact NCHS reports verify that there has been an increase in actual cancer deaths year after year since 1972, except for the two years noted above when slight decreases were reported by NCHS. In 1999, Lynn Smaha, MD, PhD, then president of the American Heart Association, commented about the misleading effects of federal reporting based on “rates per 100,000:”

"By looking only at death rates, we may miss the bigger picture which is that the actual number of individuals dying from heart disease and stroke has gone up." Of course, this is true for cancer as well. However, missing the true picture is precisely what is happening as the result of the collaborators on cancer using "death rates" in their reporting instead of the increasing number of individuals actually dying year after year. The statistic distorts the stubborn reality that, for the past several decades, a higher number of individuals have died from cancer in each succeeding year, excepting only 2003 and 2004\. The statement that “…cancer mortality has been on the decline since 1990” -- made repeatedly by federal agencies and the American Cancer Society, is a blatant falsehood, and the group of cancer collaborators know it. You folks should recognize the truth and report it accordingly.

Larry O'Brien