Annual Report to Nation Reveals Cancer Rates Continue to Decline

A JOINT REPORT on national cancer statistics revealed that rates of death in the

United States from all cancers for men and

women continued to decline between 2003

and 2007—the most recent reporting period

available—according to the latest Annual

Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.

The report also found that the combined

overall rate of new cancer diagnoses for men

and women decreased an average of slightly

less than 1 percent per year for the same peri-

od. The drop in cancer death rates continues

a trend that began in the early 1990s.

Alabama has one of the highest rates of

cancer morality in the nation.

In 2010, Alabama was esti-

mated to have had 23,640 new

cases of cancer and 10,150 deaths

from the disease, excluding basal-

and squamous-cell skin cancers.

The report shows that cancer-death rates

were highest among black men and black

women, although this group also showed the

largest decline for the period between 1998

and 2007 compared with other racial groups.

The national report also finds, for the first

time, that lung cancer death rates decreased

in women, more than a decade after rates

began dropping in men.

The report is co-

authored by researchers

from the North American Association of

Central Cancer Registries, the National

Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention and the American

Cancer Society.

ETTY “Tika” Benveniste, Ph.D.,

chair of the UAB

Department of Cell

Biology and UAB

Comprehensive

Cancer Center

senior scientist,

has been selected

to join scientific experts from across the

country on a new council that will advise the

Center for Scientific Review (CSR) at the

National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the

peer review of grant applications in scientific

review groups at CSR.

The group’s input will help ensure the

vitality of CSR peer-review groups so that

the billions of dollars the NIH invests in

biomedical research grants each year can

advance research with the most promise for

saving lives and improving public health. The

council also will provide input concerning

CSR’s policies and practices related to the

receipt and referral of NIH grant applications

to CSR review groups.

Benveniste Named to Prestigious NIH Committee

u A b C o m P r e H e N S I V e C A N C e r C e N T e r 25

THE UAB Breast Health Center, part of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the

first in Alabama and its multistate region to

be accredited by the National Accreditation

Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC).

UAB is the first NAPBC-accredited

breast center in Alabama, as well as the only

NAPBC-accredited center in the region that

includes Mississippi, the Florida Panhandle

and western Georgia.

The National Accreditation Program for

Breast Centers is a consortium of national

professional organizations dedicated to the

improvement of the quality of care and

monitoring of outcomes for patients with

diseases of the breast. This mission is pur-

sued through standard-setting, scientific

validation and patient and professional edu-

cation.

NAPBC accreditation is granted only to

those centers that have voluntarily commit-

ted to provide the best in breast cancer diag-

nosis and treatment and are able to comply

with established NAPBC standards. Each

center must undergo a rigorous evaluation

and review of its performance and compli-

ance with the NAPBC standards. To main-

tain accreditation, centers must undergo an

on-site review every three years.

UAB Breast Health Center Receives Accreditation