Question

This data table lists the most common types of cancer in the United States, and includes information on the known or likely carcinogens, estimated cases per year, and estimated deaths per year in 2014.

Cancer in the United States (Ranked by number of cases)
Cancer	Known or Likely Carcinogenes or Factors	Estimated cases (2014)	Estimated deaths (2014)
Breast	Estrogen; possibly dietary fat	235,000	40,400
Prostate	Testosterone; possibly dietary fat	233,000	29,500
Lung	Cigarette smoke	224,000	159,000
Colon and rectum	High dietary fat; low dietary fiber	136,800	50,310
Skin	Ultraviolet light	81,200	13,000
Lymphomas	Viruses (for some types)	80,000	20,100
Bladder	Cigarette smoke	74,700	15,600
Uterus	Estrogen	65,000	12,600
Kidney	Cigarette smoke	63,900	13,900
Leukemias	X-rays; benzene; viruses (for some types)	52,400	24,100
Pancreas	Cigarette smoke	46,400	39,600
Liver	Alcohol; hepatitis viruses	33,200	23,000
Brain and nerve	Trauma; X-rays	23,400	14,300
Stomach	Table salt; cigarette smoke	22,200	11,000
Ovary	Large number of ovulation cycles	22,000	14,300
Cervix	Viruses; cigarette smoke	12,400	4,000
All other types		259,940	101,010
Total		1,665,540

Use the data table and your knowledge of cancer to identify which statements are true.

Select all that apply.

The combined survivability of all types of cancer is about 65%.

Lung cancer is more deadly than cancer of the pancreas.

Cancers with higher numbers of cases will have higher deadliness percentages.

Reducing risk factors might decrease the number of cancer cases, but would be unlikely to decrease the cancer deadliness percentages.

Cancer of the cervix is the most survivable type of cancer.

Answer 1

We first compute the death rates and survival rates for each type of cancer as:

Death Rate = Estimated Deaths / Estimated cases

Survival rate = 1 - Death rate.

This is shown in percentage terms in the following table:

From the above table, we can see that the total survival rate is 64.83% close to 65%

Therefore a) is correct.

Now for lung cancer, death rate is 71% and for pancreas cancer the death rate is 85.34%

Therefore pancreas cancer is more deadly here.

Therefore b) is incorrect

Now after this Using the CORREL function in EXCEL, the correlation coefficient was computed between the total number of estimated cases and the death rate array. The correlation coefficient came out to be - 0.283 which is a slight negative correlation.

Therefore c) is also incorrect

Reducing risk factors not only decrease the estimated cases of cancer but also the deadliness and therefore the death rates due to cancer.

Therefore d) is also incorrect.

Cancer of Protrate has a survival rate of more than 87% which is much more thatn the survival rate in case of cancer of Cervix ( 61.14% )

Therefore e) is also incorrect.