Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and Virginia, behind heart disease, and the leading cause of death for people under the age of 65 years.
There were more than 67,000 deaths from cancer that occurred between 2001 and 2005 in Virginia. The rate of cancer death, or morality rate, is 192.5 per 1000,000 people in Virginia each year during that five-year period. An estimated 13,990 deaths are expected to occur in Virginia in 2008.
Men die from cancer at a higher rate than women (Figure 1).
More cancer deaths occur among whites. However, the rate of cancer death for blacks (241 per 100,000) is greater than that of whites (186 per 100,000) (Figure 1).
The top three leading causes of death from cancer for men are lung and bronchus cancer, prostate cancer, and colon and rectum cancer. For women, cancer of the lung and bronchus, breast, and colon and rectum are the top three leading causes of death from cancer (Figure 2).
Figure 1 - Cancer (All Sites) Mortality Rate by Sex and Race in Virginia, 2001-2005
Source: VDH Division of Health Statistics. Rates (per 100,000) are age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. 95% confidence intervals are shown.
Figure 2 - Most Common Causes of Cancer Death for Men and Women in Virginia
Source: Virginia Division of Health Statistics. The number of cancer deaths by site and their percentage of the total number of cases reported are shown.
If you are having trouble reading Figure 2 data, click here to download the PDF version.
For information on cancer mortality in the U.S. and other states, go to the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) website (http://seer.cancer.gov/).
