Abstract: . . .  American Cancer Society, Inc. Page 20 New Cancer Cases: The estimated numbers of new US cancer cases among African Americans in 2003 were calculated by fitting the estimated numbers of cancer cases that occurred each year in the US from 1979 through 1999 to a statistical forecasting model. The esti- mated numbers of US cases from 1979 through 1999 were calculated using cancer incidence from the regions of the US included in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute and population data collected by the US Bureau of the Census. Incidence Rates: Incidence rates are defined as the number of people per 100,000 population who develop disease during a given period of time. Incidence data for the report were collected by the SEER program along with the population data collected by the US Bureau of the Census. All incidence rates in this publication are age-adjusted to the 2000 US s . . .
. . .  adjusting for age, it would be inaccurate to compare the cancer rates of the state of Florida, which has a large elderly population, to that of Alaska, which has a younger population. This is especially true when examining cancer rates, since cancer is generally a disease of older people. Without adjusting for age, it would appear that the cancer rates for Florida are much higher than Alaska. However, once the ages are adjusted, it appears their rates are similar. Starting with this issue of Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2003-2004 , we used the most recent US census (2000) as the baseline for our age-adjustment. This is a change from previous issues and other statistics we have published. Prior to this, our statistics were based on the 1970 census. This change follows federal agencies that publish statistics. The change will also require a recalculation of age-adjusted rates for previous years to allow valid comparison between current and past years. The impact of this change . . .
. . .  for age, it would be inaccurate to compare the cancer rates of the state of Florida, which has a large elderly population, to that of Alaska, which has a younger population. This is especially true when examining cancer rates, since cancer is generally a disease of older people. Without adjusting for age, it would appear that the cancer rates for Florida are much higher than Alaska. However, once the ages are adjusted, it appears their rates are similar. Starting with this issue of Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2003-2004 , we used the most recent US census (2000) as the baseline for our age-adjustment. This is a change from previous issues and other statistics we have published. Prior to this, our statistics were based on the 1970 census. This change follows federal agencies that publish statistics. The change will also require a recalculation of age-adjusted rates for previous years to allow valid comparison between current and past years. The impact of this change on the . . .
--3000,3,500,3168,51721