(Chicago, IL) — Deaths from cancer have dropped dramatically over the past 30 years. That’s the happy news from researchers at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The study tossed out the traditional way of measuring cancer death rates that lumped all age groups together, despite knowing that cancer is more likely to strike as people get older. Once researchers started divvying up the death stats by age, they found that every group born after 1930 is seeing a huge improvement. People ages 35-45 have seen the biggest gains, as cancer mortality plummeted 25% in the last three decades. Researchers credit greater survival rates to a number of factors. Mammograms, colonoscopies and other types of screenings are finding malignancies in ever-earlier stages, when they’re most treatable. And breakthrough treatments are helping turn the tide for many cancer patients as well, say researchers. The study is published in the journal “Cancer Research.”
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