The cancer death rate in the U.S. fell 2.4% from 2017 to 2018, the biggest drop in a single year on record and a sign of the impact of new treatments especially on lung cancer, the American Cancer Society said.
It was the second consecutive year with a record drop, and progress continues the gains that have been made for more than a quarter of a century, the cancer society said in a report published on Tuesday.
Overall, the cancer death rate has dropped 31% since its peak in 1991, according to the report, which was published online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
“It is very encouraging to see these continuing declines in cancer mortality,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of her new report.
Despite the gains, cancer remains one of the country’s leading causes of death: the second leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease. In 2018, it was responsible for more than 599,000 deaths, the report said.