Cancer deaths and education: Exploring the link
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 The effects of higher education may play a role in much-discussed cancer statistics. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) |
The American Cancer Society's annual report, released Friday, holds good news for just about everybody: The overall cancer death rate is dropping steadily, and fewer people are getting the dreaded diagnosis in the first place. But as the organization notes, one group has largely been left behind in this march toward progress.
For many reasons — some obvious, some mysterious — people who didn’t get far in school seem to be prime targets for deadly cancer. The cancer death rates are almost three times higher for people who didn’t finish high school than for college graduates. The gap was especially large for lung cancer — which makes sense because people without much education are especially likely to smoke — but it was also strong for all of the major killers, including cancers of the breast, colon and prostate.
For many reasons — some obvious, some mysterious — people who didn’t get far in school seem to be prime targets for deadly cancer. The cancer death rates are almost three times higher for people who didn’t finish high school than for college graduates. The gap was especially large for lung cancer — which makes sense because people without much education are especially likely to smoke — but it was also strong for all of the major killers, including cancers of the breast, colon and prostate.
