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Skin Cancer: Module
5
Age-adjusted Mortality Rates Exercise
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to Module 5
Question 1: Define
"mortality" as used in this chart.
Answer:
This
chart shows the number of deaths due to lung and bronchus cancer in a
given year, divided by the number of the people in the population. The
rates are "age-adjusted." [This lets us generalize from the SEER data
to the standard US population in 1970.]
Question 2: What
year had the highest overall (male+female) age-adjusted mortality rate
from lung cancer? The highest mortality rate for men? For women? How might
you explain these differences?
Answer:
The
period from 1990–1993 had the highest overall rates of lung and bronchus
cancer for men and women combined. [The combined mortality rate has remained
the same or slightly declined since then.] The highest mortality rate
from this cancer for men was seen in 1987–1990. [Mortality has since
gone down somewhat.] The highest mortality rate from this cancer for women
was seen in 1998. [Given the steady upward trend, mortality from this
cancer has probably continued to go up.] When explaining these differences,
answers may vary. But they should include—
- changing
social norms regarding women smoking and
- more targeting
of women by tobacco companies.
Question 3: Compare
and contrast the trends in age-adjusted incidence rates of lung
and bronchus cancer with the trends in age-adjusted mortality rates
for this cancer. (Refer to the data on age-adjusted incidence rates in
Exercise A above.) Would you expect the two graphs to be similar? What
can comparing these two graphs tell you about how treatable or how fatal
a given disease is?
Answer:
The
line charts show that incidence rates and mortality rates are similar.
They also show that their trends run parallel to one another. This suggests
two things:
- The disease
is not often treated successfully.
- The disease
is highly fatal.
Using these
charts, we can see that there have been no major advances in treatment
or detection of lung and bronchus cancer. If successful new treatments
were in use, the mortality rate would go down. If detection efforts were
catching the disease at an earlier, more curable stage, the mortality
rate would again reflect that.
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