Breast Cancer Rate at Record High : Lung Form of Disease Among Men Down in Last Decade

The incidence of breast cancer--the leading cause of cancer deaths in women--has reached its highest rate in history, while the incidence of lung cancer among men declined to its lowest rate in this decade, the National Cancer Institute reported Monday.

The institute, in its annual report on cancer incidence and survival, reported also that, among white women younger than 50, the breast cancer death rate increased in 1984 and 1985 for the first time since 1970.

Dr. Edward Sondik, chief of the institute’s surveillance and operations research branch, attributed the increased breast cancer incidence in part to earlier screening and detection of the disease. However, he said, “The fact that the mortality rate hasn’t changed downwards says either the screening is ineffective or it’s just not taking place.

“If we were screening to the fullest extent possible,” he predicted, “we would see a decline in mortality of at least 30% in women over 50, and we’d see it soon.”

Lung Cancer Up for Women

The incidence of lung cancer continued to rise among women, according to the report, but Sondik said that, “in the dubious race” between the two cancers, “breast cancer is still ahead” as the leading cancer killer of women.

In 1985, he said, there were 40,090 breast cancer deaths and 38,641 lung cancer deaths among women. The cancer statistics for the institute’s annual report are available only through 1985.

The incidence of breast cancer among all races has risen steadily by about 1% each year since 1973 to a record high of about 102 cases per 100,000 women in 1985, the report said. It said that a dramatic jump from 82.3 cases per 100,000 women in 1973 to about 94 cases per 100,000 in 1974 probably could be attributed to “earlier disease detection because of publicity concerning cases of breast cancer among a number of prominent Americans.”

In 1974, First Lady Betty Ford and Happy Rockefeller, wife of Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller, underwent mastectomies. Sondik said that the awareness generated by First Lady Nancy Reagan’s breast cancer surgery last year might well be reflected in future data.

The death rate from breast cancer increased 5% in 1984 and 1985 for white women under age 50 after steady annual decreases of about 1.4% through 1983, the report said. The death rate was six deaths per 100,000 in that group in 1984 and 6.1 per 100,000 in 1985.

Whites’ Death Rate Stable

For white women overall, the death rate was stable between 1973 and 1985, with rates ranging between 26.2 and 27.6 deaths per 100,000. For black women, the death rate from breast cancer has been steadily increasing at less than 1% a year from 26.1 deaths per 100,000 in 1973 to 27.7 in 1985, the report said.

The incidence of lung cancer, the leading cause of all cancer deaths, decreased among white and black males in 1985, the report said. Among white males, the rate dropped from the 1984 figure of 84 cases per 100,000 to 80.5 in 1985, the lowest since the 1977 rate of 80.

The rate among black males decreased from 135.5 in 1984 to 124.7 in 1985, the lowest since 1981 for black males, the report said. “There appears to be a leveling off of the rate of lung cancer mortality in males,” the report said.

Sondik attributed the pattern to increased awareness of the dangers of smoking. However, he said, statistics on the number of Americans who have stopped smoking are “disturbing” because they “don’t show a steep decline--and that’s what we’d hoped to see. It’s the heavy smoker problem--getting heavy smokers to quit is difficult.”

Lung cancer has had the largest increase in the number of deaths, the report said, amounting to an increase of 90,898 fatalities in 1985 above that expected from the 1950 rates. “Without lung cancer,” it said, “the total cancer deaths in 1985 would have been below that expected from the 1950 rates by about 44,500.”

Death Rates Declining

The report said also that:

--Cancer deaths in general are declining for most age groups, although there are increases in mortality and incidence in specific types of cancer.

--Cancer mortality rates among Americans younger than 55 have been decreasing between 1950 and 1985.

--Cancer among those under age 15 has demonstrated the most significant improvement in death rates in recent years.

--Colon and rectal cancer deaths continue to decline in the face of increasing incidence, and figures on survival show that five-year survival is increasing.

--The decline in Hodgkin’s disease mortality, compared with an increase in incidence over the same period, “is consistent with the improvements in treatment that emerged from research over the past 15 to 20 years.”