Oncology

February 4th Is World Cancer Day

February 4 is the annual observance of World Cancer Day. This year's theme is reducing stigma and dispelling myths about cancer. In the lead-up to the day, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer released a new report emphasizing that treatment alone will not win the global battle against cancer without also focusing on prevention. Recent reports from the U.S. show that cancer death rates continue to decline and fewer years of life are being lost to cancer, but cancer mortality has not fallen as fast of that of other diseases.

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U.S. Cancer Rates Fall Overall, but Some HPV-associated Cancers Rise

Deaths due to all types of cancer combined decreased for men and women of all racial/ethnic groups in the U.S., according to a joint "Annual Report to the Nation," published in the January 7, 2013, advance edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Incidence of oral and anal cancer increased, however, leading the report authors to call for wider use of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.

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