WASHINGTON – Liver cancer seems to be on the rise, a blip of bad news in the nation’s otherwise optimistic annual report on cancer, which shows continuing improvement in survival rates.
The report found annual liver cancer increases of 3 percent among white men, 3.7 percent among white women, 4.5 percent among black men and 5 percent among Hispanic women.
It’s not clear spurred the rise, although one factor may be hepatitis infections.
Overall, American death rates from cancer have dropped 1.1 percent a year since 1993, a trend that continued in 2002 – the most recent figures available, researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Rates of new cancer cases are holding steady for men. But a small but stubborn increase in female diagnoses continues – 0.3 percent a year since 1987 – fueled mostly by steadily rising rates of breast and thyroid cancer, melanoma and lymphoma.
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