Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the overall progress against cancer in Austria by analyzing changes in age-adjusted mortality rates from 1970 to 2002.
Methods: For the years 1970 through 2002, age-adjusted rates for all malignant neoplasms together and for selected cancers individually were calculated for men and women according to year and age. The data were obtained from Statistik Austria.
Results: Age-adjusted mortality rates of all cancers decreased in men by 22% and in women by 27%. The annual decrease of cancer mortality was 0.8% per year in the time period analyzed and 1.7% per year from 1993 to 2002 in both sexes. Among older persons (> or = 55 years) the mortality decreased by 21% in men and by 25% in women; among younger persons (< or = 54 years) by 25% and 40%, respectively. In individual cancer sites, the highest mortality rates are observed before the year 1995 in both sexes, except for liver and brain cancer in men (with the most recent peaks in the year 2001) and lung and brain cancer in women (with the most recent peaks in the year 2002).
Conclusions: The observed changes in cancer mortality are primarily related to changes in incidence and, in the last decade, to improved treatment and early detection, but neither of these contributions can be quantified. The strengthening of prevention research (primary and secondary prevention) and further implementation of preventive knowledge is urgently needed.