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Cancer Death Rates Have Fallen Since 1991, but Disparities Persist

The overall U.S. cancer death rate has decreased by 35% since 1991, with research showing not everyone has benefited equally, according to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Disparities Progress Report 2026. (The AACR publishes Cancer Today.) The report, published every two years, notes that Black and American Indian or Alaska Native populations still experience the nation’s highest overall cancer mortality rates. Additionally, rural residents face a 27% higher risk of dying from colorectal cancer than urban populations. Women in persistent-poverty counties have a 49% higher cervical cancer death rate than those in higher-income areas. “I think we often don’t understand the pressure on women as it relates to screening,” Paul DiSilvestro, gynecologic oncologist at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, who was not involved in the report, told ABC News. “Sometimes you have to make a choice between going to work, caring for your children, putting food on the table and getting a screening test.” But the report also demonstrates some progress in closing disparities. In 1991, the lung cancer mortality rate was 23% higher among Black people than white people. However, in 2024, the lung cancer mortality rate was approximately 4% lower among Black individuals than white individuals. Mortality rates from cervical cancer among Hispanic and stomach cancer among Asian or Pacific Islander populations also narrowed compared with white populations.

Antibody-drug Conjugate Moves to First Line in Metastatic Triple-negative Breast Cancer

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan) as a first-line treatment for adults with advanced triple negative breast cancer. The agency approved the TROP-2-directed antibody-drug conjugate as a standalone treatment for adults with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who are not eligible for immunotherapy. In the trial, which included 558 people who were ineligible for immunotherapy, Trodelvy extended median progression-free survival—the time a person lives with cancer without the disease worsening—to 9.7 months compared with 6.9 months for standard chemotherapy. The FDA also authorized Trodelvy for use with immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for patients whose tumors express PD-L1 with combined positive score of at least 10. Data from a trial of 443 patients in immunotherapy-eligible patients found that adding Trodelvy to Keytruda extended median progression-free survival to 11.2 months compared with 7.8 months for people receiving chemotherapy plus Keytruda. Previously, Trodelvy was approved for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer after trying at least two prior systemic therapies, including at least one for metastatic disease. With this approval, oncologists can prescribe Trodelvy as the initial treatment for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer behaves aggressively, recurring after an average of two-and-a-half years compared with five years for other breast cancer types, the Wall Street Journal reported. Nearly half of patients with metastatic disease do not receive a second line of therapy. “We’re seeing this very impressive benefit in the metastatic setting,” Sara Tolaney, a breast medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and co-author on both trials, told the Wall Street Journal. “It makes us want to move these drugs into earlier-stage disease and try to cure more patients.”

Biomarker Test May Reduce False Negatives in Prostate Cancer Screening

A multicomponent blood test, called Stockholm3, identified significantly more prostate cancers than a standard prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test alone, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. PSA, a protein made by the prostate, may be measured by a blood test to indicate whether a man may have prostate cancer. However, research has linked using PSA levels for prostate cancer screening with high rates of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. The Stockholm3 biomarker test combines PSA measurement with additional plasma proteins, a genetic risk score and clinical patient data, MedPage Today reported. The research involved 12,670 men ages 50 to 74 who underwent both PSA and Stockholm3 tests. During a two-year follow-up, 443 men, or 3.5%, were diagnosed with clinically significant prostate cancer. The new screening method detected 90% of prostate cancers compared with 74% found with PSA testing alone. It also reduced missed cases with a 10% false-negative rate, meaning that the test result indicates a person does not have cancer when they actually do. Moreover, the test achieved this accuracy without increasing false-positive rates, cases in which the test indicates that a person has cancer when they do not. The Stockholm3 test had an 11% false-positive rate compared with 10% for PSA screening. “Stockholm3 provided a favorable balance between identification of clinically actionable cancer and diagnostic work-up across decision thresholds for biopsy compared with PSA,” the researchers wrote. “These findings support the use of Stockholm3 in the context of a risk-adapted screening approach, enabling more precise identification of men at higher risk for clinically significant disease while reducing unnecessary biopsies.” The researchers called for longer-term studies to confirm the test’s impact and cost-effectiveness.