The death toll from cancer in the US dropped by 2.4% from 2017 to 2018, which was the largest single-year decline and a sign of the impact of new treatments on lung cancer in particular, the American Cancer Society said.
It was the second year in a row with a decline in record and progress continues for more than a quarter of a century, the cancer association said in a report published Tuesday.
Overall, the cancer mortality rate has dropped by 31% since its peak in 1991, according to the report, which was published online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
“Seeing this continuing record decline in cancer deaths is very encouraging,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of his new report.
Despite the gains, cancer remains one of the biggest killers in the country: the second leading cause of death in the US after heart disease. In 2018, it was responsible for more than 599,000 deaths, the report said.