News 12 spoke with a local health expert and a cancer survivor about a recent report released by the American Cancer Society.

The American Cancer Society found that around 5,500 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer every day this year. 

The report also found that the number of young people getting cancer has increased at an alarming rate. But even though diagnoses are increasing, the likelihood of mortality is decreasing.

News 12's Julia Joseph spoke with Shenae Craig, who was diagnosed with cancer at 31 years old. Craig says early screening saved her life. 

"Had I sat on not getting checked out, who knows how it would have been in the end," says Craig.

Dr. Oscar Lahoud, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, says self-advocacy saved Craig's life. He says early diagnosis is key to not being a statistic.

"In the past few decades, when we were expecting about six to seven per 100,000 deaths from cancers in that age group, now we're down about two in 100,000," says Lahoud.