What is an annual percent change or APC?
The annual percent change is the averaged rate of change in a cancer rate per year in a given time frame, i.e., how fast or slow a cancer rate has increased or decreased each year over a period of years. Annual percent change, sometimes abbreviated as APC, were calculated for both incidence and death rates. The number is given as a percent — such as the 0.7 percent per year decrease in incidence of all cancers from 1990 to 1995. 18. How are cancer incidence and death rates presented? Cancer incidence rates and cancer death rates are measured as a number per 100,000 people. When a cancer affects only one gender, such as prostate cancer, the number is per 100,000 people of that gender. In this report, cancer incidence and death rates are given for the period 1990 to 1995 for 23 cancer sites, including separate figures for lung cancer in men and women because the rate for men is much higher. The 23 sites are cancers of the prostate, female breast, lung, colon-rectum, uterus, bladder, ova
