Early in the year, the American Cancer Society announced that the death rate from cancer in the U.S. had declined by 29 percent from 1991 to 2017, including its biggest-ever single'year drop from 2016 to 2017.
The decades-long decline was due to long-term drops in death rates in the four most common cancer types: lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate.
Those were in part due to behavioral changes and in part to diagnosis and treatment options. For example, the reduction in lung cancer deaths was attributed to a decline in smoking as well as advances in early detection and treatment.
The steepest decline in cancer deaths came in melanoma skin cancer and was largely credited to advances in immunotherapy treatment. A drop in the 65-plus age group was of particular significance because rates had been rising prior to 2013.
The Society said improvements in targeted therapies and other treatments helped in some types of leukemia and lymphoma. The five-year relative survival rate for chronic myeloid leukemia increased from 22 percent in the mid-1970s to 70 percent for those diagnosed between 2009 and 2015; and most people treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors now have nearly normal life expectancy.