Cancer No. 1 Cause of Death for Hispanics

Cancer is now the leading cause of death among U.S. Hispanics, the American Cancer Society says in a new report. The rest of the country may follow in the next 10 years, the author told the Associated Press (AP). Some U.S. health officials think cancer may replace heart disease as the top killer even sooner, in the next 2 or 3 years. The reason it's already the leading cause of death for Hispanics is mainly related to age, AP said. On average, U.S. Hispanics are younger than non-Hispanic whites and blacks. Cancer occurs more often at younger ages than heart disease does. As for the overall trends, death rates for both heart disease and cancer have been falling. But heart disease deaths have fallen faster because of better treatments, AP said. Cancer is also the leading cause of death for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. The report appears this week in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.