Florida - Thursday June 1, 2023: The Cancer Connect Collaborative has releases the 2023 Florida Cancer Report which gives insights into the trends for the most common cancers, highlights screening and prevention measures, as well as providing details the history of cancer research and care in Florida.
Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in Florida, after heart disease and we must innovate cancer best practices to save lives. The average number of cancer cases annually in Florida from 2016-2020 was nearly 130,000.
The top five most frequently diagnosed cancers in Florida are breast, lung, prostate, colorectal and skin cancers. Since 2017, these top five cancers have accounted for just over half of all cancer diagnoses (50.3%) in Florida.
Cancer is easiest to treat when caught early, and the report describes common symptoms to look for broken down by age, gender, and other demographics.
The report also highlights an increase in cancer trends among young people.
Since 1990, age-adjusted cancer rates have increased between 2-4 percent annually in most countries in people 30 and younger. In Florida, researchers have seen this trend in the past 10 years.
Specific cancers were found to have increased among younger individuals, ages 20- 39, over the past 10 years in Florida, including breast cancer, colon cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and leukemia. The efforts of the Collaborative strive to decrease the rates of cancer among young, healthy individuals, among other populations, by increasing awareness of prevention and self-screening techniques.
Florida is the first state in the nation to collect population-level cancer recurrence data and continues to collect and assess patient outcome data. Through a Florida Department of Health analysis of breast cancer data, it has been found that among Florida women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2011 and 2015, 12.4%, or nearly ten thousand individuals, developed a second cancer within 5 years.
For more information on the Florida Cancer Connect Collaborative initiative, visit FLCancerConnect.com/Collaborative.