Age

• The occurrence of cancer increases as people age, most cases affect adults beginning in middle-age, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
• About 80% of all cancers are diagnosed at age 55 and older. (ACS)

• About 600,000 people die in the United States each year from cancer. (ACS)
• OR 50,000 people every month
• 12,500 people every week
• 1,768 people every day
• 75 people every hour.
• Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death in the U.S. (ACS)
• 8 million Americans alive today have a history on cancer. (ACS)
• In the U.S., men have a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer, and for women the risk is 1 in 3. (ACS)
• One out of every four deaths in the US is from cancer. (ACS)
• About 40% of Americans will eventually be stricken with cancer. (John Rennie and Ricki Rusting, Scientific American)

• It is estimated that there will be 8,600 new cases of cancer this year among children aged 0-14. (ACS)
• An estimated 1,500 deaths are expected to occur among children aged 0-14 this year, about one-third of them from leukemia. (ACS)
• Cancer is the chief cause of death by disease in children between ages 1 and 14. (ACS)

• Women with a first-degree family history (mother, sister, or daughter) are 2 times or 100% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not have a family history of the disease. (ACS)

• Women with a first-degree family history (mother, sister, or daughter) are 2 times or 100% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not have a family history of the disease. (ACS)
• Lung cancer mortality rates are more than 20 times higher for current male smokers and 12 times higher for current female smokers. (US Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, Ga US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 1989)

• In the U.S., men have a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer, and for women the risk is 1 in 3. (ACS)
• Male smokers are about 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. (ACS)
• Lung cancer mortality rates are more than 20 times higher for current male smokers and 12 times higher for current female smokers. (US Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, Ga US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 1989)

• African Americans have the highest cancer incidence rates (ACS)
• Incidence rates of female breast cancer are highest among white women and lowest among American Indian women. (ACS)
• Black women have the highest incidence rates of colon, rectum, lung, and bronchus cancers. (ACS)
• Black men have the highest incidence rates pf prostate, colon, rectum, lung, and bronchus cancers. (ACS)
• Black men are about 50% more likely to develop prostate cancer than men of any other racial and ethnic group. (ACS)
• Black women are more likely to die of breast, colon, and rectum cancers than of any other racial and ethnic group. (ACS)
• Black men have the highest mortality rates of colon, rectum, lung, bronchus, and prostate cancers. (ACS)
• Black men are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than men of other racial and ethnic groups. (ACS)