The U.S. cancer rate has begun to decline for the first time since the government began compiling records, Xinhua reported. This marked a tipping point in the fight against the second-leading cause of death among Americans, the Los Angeles Times said. The number of cancer deaths was declining as the result of better treatment, but the drop in incidence indicates that major progress is also being made in prevention, researchers said. "The drop in incidence is something we have been waiting to see for a long time," said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society which provided the figures. "The continuing drop in mortality is evidence once again of real progress made against cancer, reflecting real gains in prevention, early detection and treatment," Brawley said. Incidence rates for all cancers combined and for men and women combined dropped by 0.8 percent per year from 1999 through 2005, with the rates for men dropping at about three times the rate for women, according to the paper. The overall death rate declined by an average of 1.8 percent per year over the same period. Currently, about 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year, and an estimated 560,000 die from it. The decline in both incidence and death rates was due in large part to declines in the five of the six most common cancers -- lung, colorectal and prostate in men and breast and colorectal cancer in women. The sixth most common form, lung cancer in women, leveled off, the paper said. Those cancers alone account for about half of both new cases and deaths.
