Comprehensive Cancer Control of South Dakota

Cancer Burden

How Cancer Affects South Dakotans

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in South Dakota. About 1,600 people each year die from cancer. Based on estimates for 2004 (ACS 2004), 5 in 10,000 South Dakotans were diagnosed with cancer and one in four of all deaths were due to cancer. If present trends continue cancer could become the leading cause of death. These trends include an aging population and a decrease in deaths from heart disease and stroke. Everyone in South Dakota is affected by cancer either by living with the disease themselves or by having family and friends with a malignancy.

Incidence:

South Dakota registered approximately 3,900 new cases of invasive cancers (cancers that have spread) and in situ (contained) bladder cancers in 2002.
The age-adjusted incidence rate was 434.8 compared to the national rate of 468.8 per 100,000 in 2001.
Prostate cancer was the most common cancer reported with breast, colorectal and lung following in that order.
The top four cancers accounted for approximately 60 percent of all cases reported.
Approximately 40 percent of cancers were diagnosed at more advanced stages with 20 percent at regional stage and 19.5 percent at distant stage.
Of all cancers reported in South Dakota in 2001, 89 percent were among persons age 50 or older with half of these cases diagnosed between ages 65-79.

Mortality:

In 2002 the state's age-adjusted death rate with 1,561 deaths was 187.4 per 100,000 compared to the national rate of 193.3 per 100,000.
The top four causes of cancer deaths were lung and bronchus, colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancers, accounting for approximately 50 percent of all cancer deaths.
The age-adjusted death rate for the five year period 1998-2002 was 189.2 compared to the U.S. rate of 197.8 per 100,000 persons.
Trends in all sites of cancer death in South Dakota have decreased slightly from 1993-2002 with an annual percent change (APC) of -0.4 percent compared to -1.1 percent for the U.S. American Indians in South Dakota had the largest decrease with a statistically significant APC of -3.7 percent.

-Cancer Burden in South Dakota, 2004