Cancer is the second leading cause of death of americans with about 600,000 deaths in 2017. This is inspite of the fact that the survival rate of cancer is improvingdue to improvements in medical care. Among cancers, breast cancer is number one in the number of cases with over 3.9 million cases between 1999 and 2016. However, the leading killer is lung and bronchial cancer with 2.8 million deaths between 1999 and 2016. Leukemia is the leading cancer type afflicting children. By race, African americans have the highest cancer rate at 496 cases per 100,000, with Whites slightly lower at 488 cases per 100,000 people. Asians and Native Americans have considerably lesser incidence rates of 315 cases and 309 cases respectively.

Check out more statistics below.

• Age-adjusted cancer incidence rates.
• Number of cancer cases.
• Most common types of cancers.
• Most common cancers afflicting children.
• Cancer rates in major metropolitan areas.
• African americans have highest cancer affliction rates in the US.
• Death rate due to different types of cancer.
• Number of deaths by type of cancer.
• Deaths due to cancer by US State.
• Age-adjusted death rate by US State.
• Age-adjusted death rate due to cancer by year.
• Death rate by race for major cancers.
• Death rate by sex for major cancers.

Statistics by State

The following list shows the top state for death by cancer type. The number in the paranthesis is the death rate for the cancer type per 100,000 people between 1999 and 2016.

• Brain cancer - South Dakota (5.5)
• Breast cancer - Washington DC (17.3)
• Colon and rectal cancer - Mississippi (20.3)
• Leukemias - Wisconsin (7.9)
• Lung and bronchial cancer - Kentucky (72.4)
• Ovarian cancer - Oregon (9.3)
• Pancreatic cancer - Washington DC (13.3)
• Prostate cancer - Washington DC (39.6)
• Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma - Michigan (7.4)
• Liver cancer - Louisiana (6.6)

Resources

• CDC Wonder, https://wonder.cdc.gov/

Key Indicators