This decline, and the lower death rate from heart disease, could reflect changes in people's diets. Between 1973 and 1993, age-specific cancer death rates decreased for both males and females in all age groups except for those aged 65 and over. Men had higher age-specific cancer death rates than women after the age of 50. In 1993, the age-specific cancer death rate for men aged 65 and over was nearly twice the rate observed in women. The higher cancer death rate of older men reflects the higher risk men have of developing cancer later in life than women.
Men die of prostate cancer later in life, while women die of breast cancer at younger ages.
2,641 Prostate 2,544 . . The lung cancer death rate for men was over twice the rate for women. Lung cancer is often preventable and has been linked to lifestyle patterns such as smoking. Half of all people who died from lung cancer were aged over 70. Educating people about ways of preventing lung cancer, such as quitting smoking, will help to decrease the lung cancer death rate.