Colorectal cancer mortality ranks third highest among all cancers regardless of race or gender. Colorecbeen declining in women since before 1950 and in men since the 1980s. Overall five-year survival rates are 61 percent but as high as 96 percent when detected in the earliest stage of the disease. Despite the low use of screening tests, incidence rates have declined since 1985 and the results of the NHIS indicate gradual and modest increases in screening between 1987 and 1998. Reported use of procto-sigmoidoscopy for people over age 50 increased from 24 percent to 38 percent during this time period.
Breast cancer is the number one cancer incidence site in women regardless of race or ethnicity.
Female breast cancer death rates for white women declined steadily after 1989 and dropped sharply after 1995. Death rates for black women climbed steadily between 1979 and 1991, but leveled off after 1991. Prostate cancer incidence rates fluctuated dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s. Incidence rates increased dramatically between 1988 and 1992 and then decreased after 1992. Prostate cancer is the number one cancer incidence site in men for all racial and ethnic groups.