Here's Why The Cancer Death Rate Is Plummeting

NEW YORK, NY — The cancer death rate has dropped a staggering 26 percent between the years of 1991 and 2015, a decline that amounts to nearly 2.4 million lives saved, the American Cancer Society reported Thursday.

In 1991, about 215.1 people per 100,000 were dying of cancer in the United States. By 2015, the most recent year we have data for, that number had fallen to 158.6 per 100,000. The American Cancer Society also reports that the drop has been continuous in recent years; the cancer death rate fell 1.7 percent between 2014 and 2015.

The biggest contributor to the drop has been prevention and early detection, especially with regards to cancers tied to tobacco, experts say.

"This new report reiterates where cancer control efforts have worked, particularly the impact of tobacco control," said Otis W. Brawley, M.D., chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. "A decline in consumption of cigarettes is credited with being the most important factor in the drop in cancer death rates. Strikingly though, tobacco remains by far the leading cause of cancer deaths today, responsible for nearly three in ten cancer deaths."

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes, the percentage of people who smoke frequently has dropped from above 40 percent to below 20 percent in recent decades. The cancer death rate could presumably drop even further if this decline continues.

The mortality rates for lung cancer, female breast cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer in particular have dropped precipitously in recent decades.

The American Cancer Society projects that based on its analysis, there will be 1,735,350 new cases of cancer in 2018 and 609,640 deaths from cancer in the United states.

The overall decline in cancer mortality has not touched all demographics evenly. For example, over the past decade, the number of women diagnosed with cancer has stayed about even, while the number of men diagnosed has declined by about 2 percent each year.

Black people in the United States have a much higher likelihood of dying because of cancer than white people do. Overall, black people are 14 percent more likely to die of cancer than white people. This disparity is even greater — 33 percent — for people under 65. It's much lower for people 65 and older — 7 percent — because, as the American Cancer Society suggests, elderly people are guaranteed health insurance under Medicare.

Photo by Moses Robinson/Getty Images for American Cancer Society