Cancer Alarm Ringing In New York City

New York, NY - About 88,230 Big Apple residents were diagnosed with cancer this year and 35,600 died - many from preventable lung and prostate cancers, a new study shows.

The American Cancer Society found that too many people still die from preventable diseases - particularly lung and colon cancers. There are too many smokers, and an alarming number of residents don't get colonoscopy screenings, according to the study. Still, the report noted that overall cancer rates have dropped in the city, mirroring a national trend, thanks to medical advances and better monitoring.

Staten Island had the highest cancer rate in the city from 1999 through 2003 - 191.7 per 100,000 people. But the mortality rate fell 20 percent from a decade ago, the study said.

In Brooklyn 196 residents are diagnosed with cancer each week, and breast cancer accounted for 9.6 percent of cancer deaths this year, the highest such mortality rate in the city. The study estimates 75 Brooklynites per week have died of cancer this year. Despite that, the cancer-death rate in Kings County is 17 percent lower than a decade ago.

In Queens, 68 residents have died each week from cancer in 2006. Nearly one in four deaths in the borough are caused by lung cancer, 12 percent from colon cancer, 9 percent from breast cancer and 5 percent from prostate cancer.