| Leading Causes of Death in the US 2005 | ||
| Rank | Disease | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heart disease | 652,091 |
| 2 | Cancer | 559,312 |
| 3 | Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) | 143,579 |
| 4 | Chronic lower respiratory diseases | 130,933 |
| 5 | Accidents (unintentional injuries) | 117,809 |
| 6 | Diabetes | 75,119 |
| 7 | Alzheimer’s disease | 71,599 |
| 8 | Influenza/Pneumonia | 63,001 |
| 9 | Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis | 43,901 |
| 10 | Septicemia | 34,136 |
source CDC - Deaths: Final Data for 2005, Table C
So, we can see that far and away heart disease and cancer lead all other causes of death by a healthy margin. In fact, about half of all deaths are attributable to only those two.
| Change in US Death Rates (per 100K) by Cause 1950 and 2005 | ||
| 1950 | 2005 | |
|---|---|---|
| Heart Disease | 586.8 | 211.1 |
| Cancer | 193.9 | 183.8 |
source Cancer Statistics 2008 Presentation
From this chart we can see that rates for deaths from heart disease have come down considerably over the last 55 years while cancer has remained almost constant. At this rate, cancer will overtake heart disease as the number one killer in the US very soon.
And although the number of people dying from heart disease has been decreasing since its peak in the of almost 800,000 in the mid-1980s (AHA), the number cancer deaths have been increasing ever since the statistic has been tracked starting in 1930. There was a slight dip in 2003 and 2004 see Dr. Len’s Cancer Blog at the ACS but it trended up again in 2005, the latest year we have statistics.
From another perspective, lifetime probability of developing cancer for men is 1 in 2 and women is 1 in 3.
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